When no news is bad news: Improving diagnostic testing communication through patient engagement

Importance Up to 17% of diagnostic test results are missed, lost or ignored despite conventional fixes such as electronic physician reminders – naïvely, patients assume: ‘No-News-is-Good-News’. These lapses can result in poor outcomes, complications, and even death. In response, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)-led physician quality reporting system measure#265 emphasizes prevention. This study aims to improve the timely review of results through increasing patient engagement. Design and Participants Ninety patients undergoing diagnostic testing were included in this Internal Review Board (IRB)-approved study. Two groups, group-A (patients with medical chart access through our EHR, n = 40); and group-B (controls, n = 50) were included. Group-A was reminded via written AVS and EHR portal messages to ask about their test results at their next appointment. Controls were sent no reminders, mimicking the status- quo. Main Outcomes At subsequent visits whether patients ‘asked’ or ‘did not ask’ about their results was recorded and analyzed. Study group participants were also surveyed on their preferences for reminder communication. Results Patients that were sent reminders were up to twenty times more likely to ask their provider regarding their test results than the control group (p < 0.0001). Eighty-one percent indicated that the reminders were helpful with 90% indicating they were ‘necessary’. Neither gender nor age seemed predictive factors of patient engagement. Conclusions and Relevance This pilot study demonstrates that engaging patients in their own care through already-existing tools (AVS, EHR portal messages) improves patient-physician communication, and could lead to lower rates of missed diagnostic tests.