NCT02527915

Mental Health eConsults

The Effects of Mental Health eConsults: A Clinic-level Randomized Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 900,000 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Minnesota · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to assess whether electronic consultations between primary care providers and psychiatrists affects mental health services delivered in primary care settings.

Detailed description

This study assesses the effects of electronic consultations (eConsults) between primary care providers and psychiatrists as a way to support the delivery of mental health services in primary care settings. The setting for the study are the primary care clinics of Allina Health. The study uses a randomized rollout design. Across 45 primary care clinics, half of the clinics will be randomly assigned to receive access to eConsults at the start of the study. The other half of the clinics will provide care-as-usual for nine months, at which point they will also gain access to eConsults. Stratified randomization will be used, with stratification on whether primary care clinics have co-located specialty mental health services. For primary care clinics that are given access to eConsults, the primary care providers in those clinics will have the option of ordering an eConsult on behalf of their patients, which will include specific questions about a particular patient's care. The request is routed to the service region's psychiatry pool, and the psychiatrists have the option of responding. If they choose to respond, the psychiatrist responds with their recommendations within one business day, and the PCP proceeds with care accordingly. The psychiatrist receives 0.75 work relative value units (wRVUs) for providing this service. All communications for the eConsult are routed through Allina's Epic system. Although patients will not be billed for eConsults over the course of the proposed research, some insurance plans do cover it and evidence of eConsult effectiveness may impel other insurers to cover the service. The study will have two components. First, the investigators will collect web survey data from the primary care providers to assess how access to eConsults affects providers' perceptions of their support and skill for delivering mental health services to their patients. Second, the investigators will assess the effects of receiving eConsults at the patient level, by using data from the Electronic Medical Record system.

Conditions

• Mental Disorders

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Mental Health eConsults	Providers in primary care clinics who receive the intervention will be able to use electronic consultations (eConsults) with psychiatrists. If a primary care provider wishes to use eConsults, he/she will enter a specific question about a patient in the electronic medical record system and submit as an eConsult. A psychiatrist will review the question and the patient's record, and send a response back to the primary care provider within one business day.
OTHER	Care as usual	Providers in primary care clinics will deliver care as usual to their patients.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-08-01
• Primary completion: 2017-01-01
• Completion: 2017-03-01
• First posted: 2015-08-19
• Last updated: 2019-11-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States