Augmenting Communication With Before Visit Questionnaires

Abstract

Barriers faced by patients with diabetes can prevent them from adhering to their prescribed plan of care. An aspect of the clinical encounter that detracts from patient-provider engagement is the work required for a provider to collect and document a patient’s interval medical history. A workflow that allows patients to complete a computerized Before Visit Questionnaire (BVQ) prior to their clinic visit can support communication during a clinical encounter by highlighting the patient's barriers to adherence and using the patient's responses to facilitate provider documentation. We created a patient facing BVQ to collect information about patients’ histories and barriers in a format that could generate a summary note for their provider. Patients agreed that the BVQ helped prepare them for their clinic visit (79%) and improved their clinic visit (80%). All providers agreed it was beneficial to review a generated interval summary prior to their patient encounter. Analysis of notes produced by the providers before and after their patients completed BVQs reveals that use of BVQs increased provider documentation about patient adherence problems and barriers. Providers that incorporated the generated summaries into their clinic notes did 50% less additional typing to document histories. This research demonstrates that a workflow that supports the practice of using patient completed BVQs to produce provider documentation is agreeable to both providers and patients. Patient completed questionnaires to generate provider documentation is an effective method of supporting communication and facilitating care.