Evaluating Patient and Physician Cost Knowledge in the Emergency Department

NCT01883778 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 00057136
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 512
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to identify existing cost knowledge of Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians and patients and investigates its reported impacts on medical compliance. A cross-sectional survey will be administered electronically to Emergency Medicine physicians at the University of Utah Hospital and the Emergency Physician Integrated Care, LLC (EPIC) who staff ten-community hospital Emergency Departments (ED) in order to investigate physician knowledge and attitudes regarding cost and perceived patient compliance. In addition, a cross-sectional survey will be administered to a convenience sample of patients presenting to the University of Utah Emergency Department to obtain information about their cost knowledge and reported compliance. All ED patients will complete a follow-up phone survey to measure compliance with recommendations made during the ED visits. Following administration of the baseline survey physicians will be provided the prices of the test and procedures and will be re-surveyed 30-days later as a post intervention test to measure changes in knowledge and attitudes.

Conditions

Economic Problems

Keywords

Attitudes of health personnel; Attitudes of patients; Medical compliance; Cost awareness; Cost analysis; Patient knowledge; Physician knowledge; Medical economics; Policy; Questionnaires; Health literacy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Proportion of emergency medicine physician with accurate (+/- 25% of actual cost) cost knowledge of common medical services; influence on testing and prescribing patterns.

  Measure the extent of formal education regarding cost of medical services that physicians in the survey population have received and how that impacts knowledge and accuracy; perceived impact on medical compliance among patients.

  1 year

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Proportion of emergency department patients with accurate (+/- 25% actual costs) knowledge of medical service cost; correlation between health literacy and cost knowledge accuracy in patients.

  1 year

Other Outcomes (1)

• Efficacy of intervention to improving accuracy in cost estimation in emergency physicians.

  1 year

Study Arms (2)

Emergency Department Patients

Emergency Medicine Physicians

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

There will be two distinct study populations in this study. The first population will consist of physicians from Emergency Medicine. There are 51 Emergency Medicine physicians at the University of Utah (27 attending, 24 residents); there are 138 board-certified Emergency Medicine physicians in the EPIC group therefore a projected provider cohort of n=90 (about 50% of 189) is anticipated. The only exclusion criterion for physicians is they do not practice in one of the above-mentioned provider groups. The second population will consist of patients presenting to the University Utah Emergency Department who are determined by the attending physicians to be mentally and physically competent to complete the questionnaire (n=450). Included in this cohort are all English speaking patients who are eighteen years of age and older, who are deemed psychologically and medically stable by the ED care provider, are not prisoners, and were not brought in by EMS.

You may qualify if:

• years old or older
• Deemed psychologically and medically stable by the ED care provide
• Speak English

You may not qualify if:

• Prisoner
• Brought to Emergency Department by Emergency Medical Service
• Employed in target medical practices
• none

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Utah: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah, 84132, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Broadwater-Hollifield C, Gren LH, Porucznik CA, Youngquist ST, Sundwall DN, Madsen TE. Emergency physician knowledge of reimbursement rates associated with emergency medical care. Am J Emerg Med. 2014 Jun;32(6):498-506. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2014.01.044. Epub 2014 Feb 3.

  PMID: 24657227 DERIVED

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: CROSS SECTIONAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: PhD, MPH

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 10, 2013
• First Posted: June 21, 2013
• Study Start: August 1, 2012
• Primary Completion: August 1, 2013
• Study Completion: August 1, 2013
• Last Updated: December 26, 2016

Record last verified: 2016-12

Locations

US (1)