Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:In 2019, New York City (NYC) launched NYC Care (NYCC), a healthcare access program through NYC Health + Hospitals (H + H) for individuals who are ineligible for federally funded health insurance programs or cannot purchase insurance through the State Marketplace, predominantly undocumented individuals. OBJECTIVE:To examine the sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare use patterns, and chronic disease quality measures for diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension among NYCC patients compared with Medicaid patients seen at NYC H + H. DESIGN/METHODS:Observational study. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Adults aged 18 years and older enrolled in NYCC (N = 83,003) or Medicaid (N = 512,012) as of January 1, 2022. Patients were included if they had at least one visit between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021. MAIN MEASURES/METHODS:Sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare use patterns, and quality measures for DM and hypertension. KEY RESULTS/RESULTS:NYCC patients (n = 83,003) were, on average, older, more likely to be Hispanic with Spanish as their preferred language, had more comorbidities, and had more primary care (adjusted incidence rate ratio 2.75 [95% confidence interval 2.71, 2.80]) and specialty care (2.22 [2.17, 2.26]) visits compared to Medicaid patients (n = 512,012). Rates of emergency department visits were similar between the two groups (1.02 [1.00, 1.04]), but NYCC patients had relatively fewer hospitalizations (0.64 [0.62, 0.67]). NYCC patients with DM or hypertension had higher rates of having a documented hemoglobin A1c or blood pressure in 2022, respectively, and clinically similar rates of chronic disease control (mean difference in hemoglobin A1c - 0.05 [- 0.09, - 0.01] in patients with DM and mean difference in blood pressure - 0.38 [- 0.67, - 0.10]/ - 0.64 [- 0.82, - 0.46]) compared with Medicaid patients. CONCLUSIONS:NYCC effectively enrolled a large number of uninsured participants and provided them with healthcare access similar to that of Medicaid patients. Future studies should evaluate the impact of NYCC enrollment on healthcare utilization and disease outcomes.

RATIONALE/BACKGROUND:Telehealth navigation programmes have shown potential to improve video visit usage and attendance. However, their effectiveness in safety-net healthcare settings remains uncertain. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:This project assessed the impact of a volunteer-staffed telehealth navigation programme on video visit usage and attendance at an urban safety-net primary care clinic. METHODS:Volunteers conducted outreach calls to patients with upcoming telehealth appointments to help them prepare for their visits. Outcomes, including video usage (video vs. audio-only visits) and no-show rates, were compared between patients who received outreach and those who did not. RESULTS:Analysis revealed no significant differences in video usage (14.1% for outreach vs. 14.0% for non-outreach) or no-show rates (22.5% for outreach vs. 22.0% for non-outreach). The study included 881 patients who received outreach and 2728 patients who did not. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Patients unresponsive to outreach had lower portal activation rates and higher non-attendance, suggesting the presence of distinct engagement subgroups within the population. While volunteer-staffed programmes may provide a practical method to reach patients, telephone outreach alone was insufficient to improve video visit usage or attendance rates. Further research is needed to explore alternative or complementary strategies to enhance telehealth engagement in safety-net settings.

BACKGROUND:Individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) have increased risk for developing chronic conditions, though few studies assess rates of diagnosis of these conditions among patients with SUDs. OBJECTIVE:To compare rates of undiagnosed hypertension and diabetes among patients with and without an SUD. DESIGN/METHODS:Cross-sectional analysis using electronic health record (EHR) data from 58 primary care clinics at a large, urban, healthcare system in New York. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Patients who had at least two primary care visits from 2019-2022 were included in our patient sample. Patients without an ICD-10 hypertension diagnosis or prescribed hypertension medications and with at least two blood pressure (BP) readings ≥ 140/90 mm were labeled 'undiagnosed hypertension,' and patients without a diabetes diagnosis or prescribed diabetes medications and with A1C/hemoglobin ≥ 6.5% were labeled 'undiagnosed diabetes.' MAIN MEASURES/METHODS:We calculated the mean number of patients with and without an ICD-10 SUD diagnosis who were diagnosed and undiagnosed for each condition. We used multivariate logistic regression to assess the association between being undiagnosed for each condition, and having an SUD diagnosis, patient demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics (body mass index, Elixhauser comorbidity count, diagnosed HIV and psychosis), the percentage of visits without a BP screening, and the total number of visits during the time period. KEY RESULTS/RESULTS:The percentage of patients with undiagnosed hypertension (2.74%) and diabetes (22.98%) was higher amongst patients with SUD than patients without SUD. In multivariate models, controlling for other factors, patients with SUD had significantly higher odds of having undiagnosed hypertension (OR: 1.81; 95% CI: 1.48, 2.20) and undiagnosed diabetes (OR: 1.93; 1.72, 2.16). Being younger, female, and having an HIV diagnosis was also associated with significantly higher odds for being undiagnosed. CONCLUSIONS:We found significant disparities in rates of undiagnosed chronic diseases among patients with SUDs, compared with patients without SUDs.

Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, and much of this burden can be attributed to lifestyle and behavioral risk factors. Lifestyle medicine is an approach to preventing and treating lifestyle-related chronic disease using evidence-based lifestyle modification as a primary modality. NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal public health care system in the United States, is a national pioneer in incorporating lifestyle medicine systemwide. In 2019, a pilot lifestyle medicine program was launched at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue to improve cardiometabolic health in high-risk patients through intensive support for evidence-based lifestyle changes. Analyses of program data collected from January 29, 2019 to February 26, 2020 demonstrated feasibility, high demand for services, high patient satisfaction, and clinically and statistically significant improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors. This pilot is being expanded to 6 new NYC Health + Hospitals sites spanning all 5 NYC boroughs. As part of the expansion, many changes have been implemented to enhance the original pilot model, scale services effectively, and generate more interest and incentives in lifestyle medicine for staff and patients across the health care system, including a plant-based default meal program for inpatients. This narrative review describes the pilot model and outcomes, the expansion process, and lessons learned to serve as a guide for other health systems.

This study examines whether patients' telehealth experiences differed during a health system mandate for telehealth encounters due to the COVID-19 pandemic versus after the mandate was relaxed. Patient experience surveys from telehealth visits across 17 adult (age 18+) primary care sites at a large, urban public health system were analyzed during two periods: when a mandate was active (March 1, 2020-June 30, 2020) and when the mandate was relaxed and any appointment modality was available (July 1, 2020-November 30, 2021). Primary outcomes were odds ratios (ORs) comparing top-box percentages of survey responses at multiple levels: individual questions, four domains, and all questions together as a composite. Key findings: Patients had higher odds of selecting top-box answers in the elective telehealth period for the Care Provider (1.09 [95% confidence interval 1.03, 1.16]) and General Assessment (1.13 [1.02, 1.24]) domains and the survey composite (1.08 [1.04, 1.13]), but there was no difference for individual questions.Women reported more positive experiences during the elective telehealth period in the Access (1.22 [1.01, 1.47]), Care Provider (1.32 [1.17, 1.50]), and Telemedicine Technology (1.24 [1.04, 1.50]) domains.Our findings suggest that patients had better telehealth experiences when mandates were relaxed.

INTRODUCTION/UNASSIGNED:Patients and clinicians face challenges in participating in video telehealth visits. Patient navigation has been effective in other settings in enhancing patients' engagement with clinical programs. Our objective was to assess whether implementing a telehealth navigator program to support patients and clinicians affected video visit scheduling, video usage, and non-attendance. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:This was a quasi-experimental quality improvement project using difference-in-differences. We included data from 17 adult primary care sites at a large, urban public healthcare system from October 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022. Six sites received telehealth navigators and 11 sites were used as comparators. Navigators contacted patients (by phone) with upcoming video visits to assess and address potential barriers to successful video visit completion. They also provided on-site support to patients and clinicians regarding telehealth visits and usage of an electronic patient portal. The primary outcomes were difference-in-differences for the proportion of telehealth visits scheduled and, separately, completed as video visits and non-attendance for visits scheduled as video visits. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:There were 65 488 and 71 504 scheduled telehealth appointments at intervention and non-intervention sites, respectively. The adjusted difference-in-differences for the proportion of telehealth visits scheduled as video was -9.1% [95% confidence interval -26.1%, 8.0%], the proportion of telehealth visits completed as video visits 1.3% [-4.9%, 7.4%], and non-attendance for visits scheduled as video visits -3.7% [-6.0%, -1.4%]. CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:Sites with telehealth navigators had comparatively lower video visit non-attendance but did not have comparatively different video visit scheduling or completion rates. Despite this, navigators' on-the-ground presence can help identify opportunities for improvements in care design.

Understanding differences in how demographic groups experience telehealth may be relevant in addressing potential disparities in telehealth usage. We seek to identify and examine themes most pertinent to patients' negative telehealth experiences by age and race in order to inform interventions to improve patients' future telehealth experiences. We performed a content analysis of Press Ganey patient experience surveys from adult patients at 17 primary care sites of a large, public healthcare system with visits from April 30, 2020 to August 27, 2021. We used sentiment analysis to identify negative comments. We coded for content themes and analyzed their frequency, stratifying by age and race. We analyzed 745 negative comments. Most frequent themes differed by demographic categories, but overall, the most commonly applied codes were "Contacting the Clinic" (n = 97), "Connectivity" (n = 84), and "Webside Manner" (n = 79). The top three codes accounted for >40% of the negative codes in each race category and >35% of the negative codes in each age category. While there were common negative experiences among groups, patients of different demographics highlighted different aspects of their telehealth experiences for potential improvement.

BACKGROUND/UNASSIGNED:Schedule design may contribute to successful completion of synchronous telehealth visits by video (versus audio-only). Clustering telehealth visits on schedules may minimize workflow inefficiencies. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:We analyzed data from 21 primary care sites in an urban public health care system from March 1 to September 30, 2022. We used linear regression to test for associations between the number of consecutive telehealth visits scheduled per clinicians' half-day sessions (1 to 9+) and the proportion of telehealth visits scheduled and, separately, completed as video (versus audio-only). RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:For each additional consecutive telehealth visit scheduled, there was a 6.85% [95% confidence interval 4.80 - 8.90%] increase in the absolute percentage of visits scheduled as video visits. For each additional consecutive telehealth visit scheduled, there was a 2.88% [0.59 - 5.18%] increase in the absolute percentage of visits completed as video visits. CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:Clustered telehealth visits are positively associated with scheduling and completion of telehealth visits by video.

RATIONALE:Video visits became more widely available during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the ongoing role and value of video visits in care delivery and how these may have changed over time are not well understood. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:Compare the relative complexity of in-person versus video visits during the COVID-19 pandemic and describe the complexity of video visits over time. METHODS:We used billing data for in-person and video revisits from non-behavioural health specialities with the most video visit utilisation (≥50th percentile) at a large, urban, public healthcare system from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2022. We used current procedural terminology (CPT) codes as a proxy for information gathering and decision-making complexity and time spent on an encounter. We compared the distribution of CPT codes 99211-99215 between in-person and video visits using Fisher's exact tests. We used Spearman correlation to test for trends between proportions of CPT codes over time for video visits. RESULTS:Ten specialities (adult primary care, paediatrics, adult dermatology, bariatric surgery, paediatric endocrinology, obstetrics and gynaecologist, adult haematology/oncology, paediatric allergy/immunology, paediatric gastroenterology, and paediatric pulmonology) met inclusion criteria. For each speciality, proportions of each CPT code for in-person visits and for video visits varied significantly, and patterns of variation differed by speciality. For example, in adult primary care, video visits had smaller proportions of moderate/high complexity visits (99214 and 99215) and greater proportions of lower complexity visits (99211-99213) compared with in-person visits (p < 0.001), but in paediatric endocrinology, the opposite was seen (p < 0.001). Trends in CPT codes over time for video visits in each speciality were also mixed. CONCLUSION:In-person and video visits had differing proportions of complexity codes (typically skewing towards lower complexity for video visits). The complexity of video visits changed over time in many specialities. Observed patterns for both phenomena varied by speciality.

OBJECTIVES:Patient experience and presence of evidence-based facility services are 2 dimensions of assessing quality of addiction treatment facilities. However, the relationship between these two is not well described. The objective of this study was to explore associations between patient experience measures and service offerings at addiction treatment facilities. METHODS:We used data from cross-sectional surveys of addiction treatment facilities and persons involved in treatment at corresponding facilities to identify facility services (eg, availability of medications for alcohol use disorder, assistance with obtaining social services, etc) and patient experience measures (overall facility rating, extent helped by treatment, ability to deal with daily problems after treatment), respectively. We used hierarchical multiple logistic regression to test for associations between top-box scores for each patient experience outcome and facility services. RESULTS:We analyzed 9191 patient experience surveys from 149 facilities. Assistance with obtaining social services (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.43 [0.28-0.66]) was associated with lower overall treatment facility ratings. Childcare (2.00 [1.04-3.84]) was associated with top-box scores for extent helped. Availability of cognitive behavioral therapy (2.67 [1.25-5.73]) and childcare (1.77 [1.08-2.92]) were associated with top-box scores for ability to deal with daily problems after treatment. Assistance with obtaining social services (0.61 [0.41-0.90]) was associated with lower scores for ability to deal with problems after treatment. CONCLUSIONS:Few addiction treatment facility services were associated with patient experience measures. Future work should explore bridging the gap between evidence-based services and positive patient experiences.