Journal of general internal medicine
-
Primary care providers prescribe most long-term opioid therapy and are increasingly asked to taper the opioid doses of these patients to safer levels. A recent systematic review suggests that multiple interventions may facilitate opioid taper, but many of these are not feasible within the usual primary care practice. ⋯ These results suggest that planning for opioid taper during primary care visits may facilitate significant and sustained opioid dose reduction.
-
Medical scribes have been proposed as a solution to the problems of excessive documentation, work-life balance, and burnout facing general internists. However, their acceptability to patients and effects on provider experience have not been tested in a real-world model of effectiveness. ⋯ In this test of a modified practice model, scribes supported greater patient throughput and improved provider perceptions of documentation burden with no decrement in high patient satisfaction.
-
Opioid-related mortality continues to rise. Though risks of prescription opioid misuse and abuse are well known, short-term mortality across a range of prescription opioid exposure is unclear. ⋯ In a nationally representative sample, opioid prescriptions were associated with increased short-term mortality only without adjustment for sociodemographics, health status, or utilization. The relationship between prescription opioid use and mortality risk is more complex than previously reported, meriting further examination.
-
Optimum management after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) requires considerable patient engagement/activation. Religious practices permeate people's lives and may influence engagement in their healthcare. Little is known about the relationship between religiosity and patient activation. ⋯ Most ACS survivors acknowledge religious practices toward their recovery. Strength and comfort from religion and intercessory prayers for health were associated with high patient activation. Petition prayers for health were associated with low activation. Healthcare providers should use knowledge about patient's religiosity to enhance patient engagement in their care.
-
Practice facilitation is an implementation strategy used to build practice capacity and support practice changes to improve health care outcomes. Yet, few studies have investigated how practice facilitation strategies are tailored to different primary care contexts. ⋯ Despite significant infrastructure and resource differences between SIPs and FQHCs, the contextual factors that influenced the facilitator's change process and the strategies used to address those factors were remarkably similar. The findings emphasize that facilitators require multidisciplinary skills to support sustainable practice improvement in the context of varying complex health care delivery settings.