The impact of electronic consultation on a Canadian tertiary care pediatric specialty referral system: A prospective single-center observational study

Lillian Lai, Clare Liddy, Erin Keely, Amir Afkham, Julia Kurzawa, Nishard Abdeen, Tobey Audcent, Matthew Bromwich, Jason Brophy, Sasha Carsen, Annick Fournier, Leigh Fraser-Roberts, Hazen Gandy, Charles Hui, Donna Johnston, Kathryn Keely, Ken Kontio, Christine Lamontagne, Nathalie Major, Michael O’Connor, Dhenuka Radhakrishnan, Joe Reisman, Marjorie Robb, Lindy Samson, Erick Sell, William Splinter, Judy van Stralen, Sunita Venkateswaran and Kimmo Murto

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Background: Champlain BASE™ (Building Access to Specialists through eConsultation) is a web-based asynchronous electronic communication service that allows primary-care- practitioners (PCPs) to submit “elective” clinical questions to a specialist. For adults, PCPs have reported improved access and timeliness to specialist advice, averted face-to-face specialist referrals in up to 40% of cases and high provider satisfaction. Objective: To determine whether the expansion of eConsult to a pediatric setting would result in similar measures of improved healthcare system process and high provider acceptance reported in adults. Design: Prospective observational cohort study. Setting: Single Canadian tertiary-care academic pediatric hospital (June 2014–16) servicing 1.2 million people. Participants: 1. PCPs already using eConsult. 2.Volunteer pediatric specialists provided services in addition to their regular workload. 3.Pediatric patients ( 93.3%) of PCPs rated eConsult as very good/excellent value for both patients and themselves. All specialist survey-respondents indicated eConsult should be a continued service. Conclusions and relevance: Similar to adults, eConsult improves PCP access and timeliness to elective pediatric specialist advice and influences their care decisions, while reporting high end-user satisfaction. Further study is warranted to assess impact on resource utilization and clinical outcomes.

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0190247

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190247

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