Annual Communications Survey Results
Posted on July 13, 2016
Results from Health New England’s 2016 survey about communications between Primary Care Providers (PCPs) and Behavioral Health (BH) Providers are in.
In March, we sent out 288 questionnaires to PCPs at 10 of our practices with the highest population of members receiving BH treatment. This questionnaire was designed to assess satisfaction with the communication received from the BH providers who are treating these members. Health New England received a total of 42 responses, 40 of which identified having patients who received BH treatment, a response rate of 15%.
Results Comparison
Results of this year’s survey, compared to the 2014 survey, are shown below:
| PCP Response | 2016 | 2014 |
| Response Rate | 15% (42/288) | 7% (20/280) |
| Reports Received | ||
|
16 (40%) | 5 (29.4%) |
|
14 (35%) | 5 (29.4%) |
|
3 (7.5%) | 3 (17.6%) |
|
1 (2.5%) | 2 (11.7%) |
|
3 (7.5%) | 0 |
|
3 (7.5%) | 2 (11.7%) |
| Timeliness of Report | ||
|
0 | 5 (29.4%) |
|
10 (25%) | 3 (17.6%) |
|
3 (7.5%) | 3 (17.6%) |
|
2 (5%) | 2 (11.7%) |
|
6 (15%) | 1 (5.8%) |
|
3 (7.5%) | 3 (17.6%) |
| Usefulness of Report | ||
|
0 | 0 |
|
4 (10%) | 1 (5.8%) |
|
5 (12.5%) | 3 (17.6%) |
|
0 | 0 |
|
8 (20%) | 6 (35.2%) |
|
7 (17.5%) | 3 (17.6%) |
Barriers Identified
Some barriers that PCPs identified related to communications include:
• Limitations on communication due to federal confidentiality laws around substance abuse
• Patients declining to have substance abuse information shared between PCP and their BH provider
• A need to have updated medication lists and new diagnoses sent from BH providers
• Not having a shared electronic medical record (EMR) that allows for knowledge and information sharing between the PCP and BH provider
These results indicate that there remains an opportunity for improvement in the communications PCPs receive from BH providers about their patients.
Improvement Efforts
Throughout 2015, Health New England coordinated activities geared toward improving and promoting communications between PCPs and BH providers. These activities included:
• Offering a subsidized ½ day CME about best practices for behavioral health integration
• Ongoing provider education through regional quality summits
• Ongoing education with additional resources via our ProviderMatters news site on HNEtalk.com for providers
Health New England is committed to engage in further activities in 2016 to help improve communications among providers, which in turn will improve the continuity and coordination of treatment for our members.
If you have any best practice models or ideas, please feel free to share them at your convenience.
Thank you for participating in this year’s communications survey.
