Browsing by Author "Greiner, Melissa A"

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    eConsults' Impact on Care Access and Wait Times in Rheumatology.
    (Journal of clinical rheumatology : practical reports on rheumatic & musculoskeletal diseases, 2022-04) Malcolm, Elizabeth J; Brandon, Zachary; Wilson, Lauren E; Shoup, John Paul; King, Heather A; Lewinski, Allison; Greiner, Melissa A; Malone, Shauna; Miller, Julie; Keenan, Robert T; Tarrant, Teresa K; Phinney, Donna; Cho, Alex; Bosworth, Hayden B; Shah, Kevin

    Background/objective

    A growing number of health systems have implemented eConsults to improve access to specialty advice, but few studies have described their use in rheumatology or impact on visit wait times. We evaluated the uptake of an eConsult program and its impact on wait times for in-person rheumatology visits.

    Methods

    In this quality improvement project, we analyzed electronic health record data from 4 intervention clinics and 4 comparison clinics, 12 months before and after implementation of an eConsult program. We compared median wait time for rheumatology appointments using a pre-post difference-in-differences analysis and quantile regression, adjusting for patient age, race, sex, clinic pair, and primary insurance payer. We also interviewed 11 primary care providers from the intervention clinics and conducted a rheumatology provider focus group (n = 4) to elucidate experiences with the program.

    Results

    Rheumatologists recommended management in primary care or referral to another specialty for 41% of eConsults, reducing initial demand for in-person visits. The median wait times dropped in the intervention and the comparison clinics (42 and 25 days, respectively). Intervention clinic median wait time dropped 17 days more than comparison clinics, and this was nonstatistically significant (p = 0.089). eConsults fit provider care tasks best for triage or initial workup for diagnosis, and less well when tests required interpretation, or when back and forth communication was needed to manage the patient's condition.

    Conclusions

    Implementation of eConsults for rheumatology was associated with reduced wait times for rheumatology appointments and supported primary care providers in the triage and workup for a substantial portion of patients.
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    Factors Related to Biologic Adherence and Outcomes Among Moderate-to-Severe Asthma Patients.
    (The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice, 2022-09) Osazuwa-Peters, Oyomoare L; Greiner, Melissa A; Oberle, Amber; Oakes, Megan; Thomas, Sheila M; Bosworth, Hayden

    Background

    Adherence barriers to asthma biologics may not be uniform across administration settings for patients with moderate-to-severe asthma.

    Objective

    To examine differences in asthma biologic adherence and associated factors, as well as association with a 1-year all-cause emergency department (ED) visit, across administration settings.

    Methods

    A retrospective study of biologic naïve moderate-to-severe asthma patients with initial biologic therapy between January 1, 2016, and April 30, 2020, in the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart was performed. Three administration settings were identified: Clinic-only (outpatient office/infusion center), Home (self-administration), and Hybrid setting (mixture of clinic and self-administration). Asthma biologic adherence was the proportion of observed over expected biologic dose administrations received within 6 months from initial therapy. Factors associated with adherence were identified by administration setting, using Poisson regression analyses. A relationship between a 1-year all-cause ED visit and adherence was assessed for each administration setting using Cox regression analyses.

    Results

    The study cohort was 3932 patients. Biologics adherence was 0.75 [0.5, 1] in Clinic setting, the most common administration setting, and 0.83 [0.5, 1] in both Home and Hybrid settings. Specialist access was consistently associated with better biologic adherence, whereas Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, lower education, Medicare only insurance, and higher patient out-of-pocket cost were associated with worse biologic adherence in some settings. In the Hybrid setting, hazard for a 1-year all-cause ED visit decreased with biologic adherence.

    Conclusions

    Asthma biologic adherence varied by administration setting. Efforts to improve asthma biologic adherence should consider promoting self-administration when beneficial, improving prior specialist access, and targeting patients with higher risk of suboptimal adherence particularly Black and Hispanic patients.
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    Real world effectiveness of warfarin among ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation: observational analysis from Patient-Centered Research into Outcomes Stroke Patients Prefer and Effectiveness Research (PROSPER) study.
    (BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2015-07-31) Xian, Ying; Wu, Jingjing; O'Brien, Emily C; Fonarow, Gregg C; Olson, DaiWai M; Schwamm, Lee H; Bhatt, Deepak L; Smith, Eric E; Suter, Robert E; Hannah, Deidre; Lindholm, Brianna; Maisch, Lesley; Greiner, Melissa A; Lytle, Barbara L; Pencina, Michael J; Peterson, Eric D; Hernandez, Adrian F
    To examine the association between warfarin treatment and longitudinal outcomes after ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation in community practice.Observational study.Hospitals (n = 1487) participating in the Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke program in the United States, from 2009 to 2011.12,552 warfarin naive atrial fibrillation patients admitted to hospital for ischemic stroke and treated with warfarin compared with no oral anticoagulant at discharge, linked to Medicare claims for longitudinal outcomes.Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and home time, a patient centered outcomes measure defined as the total number of days free from institutional care after discharge. A propensity score inverse probability weighting method was used to account for all differences in observed characteristics between treatment groups.Among 12,552 survivors of stroke, 11,039 (88%) were treated with warfarin at discharge. Warfarin treated patients were slightly younger and less likely to have a history of previous stroke or coronary artery disease but had similar severity of stroke as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. Relative to those not treated, patients treated with warfarin had more days at home (as opposed to institutional care) during the two years after discharge (adjusted home time difference 47.6 days, 99% confidence interval 26.9 to 68.2). Patients discharged on warfarin treatment also had a reduced risk of MACE (adjusted hazard ratio 0.87, 99% confidence interval 0.78 to 0.98), all cause mortality (0.72, 0.63 to 0.84), and recurrent ischemic stroke (0.63, 0.48 to 0.83). These differences were consistent among clinically relevant subgroups by age, sex, stroke severity, and history of previous coronary artery disease and stroke.Among ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation, warfarin treatment was associated with improved long term clinical outcomes and more days at home. Clinical trial registration Clinical trials NCT02146274.
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    Ventricular conduction and long-term heart failure outcomes and mortality in African Americans: insights from the Jackson Heart Study.
    (Circ Heart Fail, 2015-03) Mentz, Robert J; Greiner, Melissa A; DeVore, Adam D; Dunlay, Shannon M; Choudhary, Gaurav; Ahmad, Tariq; Khazanie, Prateeti; Randolph, Tiffany C; Griswold, Michael E; Eapen, Zubin J; O'Brien, Emily C; Thomas, Kevin L; Curtis, Lesley H; Hernandez, Adrian F
    BACKGROUND: QRS prolongation is associated with adverse outcomes in mostly white populations, but its clinical significance is not well established for other groups. We investigated the association between QRS duration and mortality in African Americans. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed data from 5146 African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study stratified by QRS duration on baseline 12-lead ECG. We defined QRS prolongation as QRS≥100 ms. We assessed the association between QRS duration and all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models and reported the cumulative incidence of heart failure hospitalization. We identified factors associated with the development of QRS prolongation in patients with normal baseline QRS. At baseline, 30% (n=1528) of participants had QRS prolongation. The cumulative incidences of mortality and heart failure hospitalization were greater with versus without baseline QRS prolongation: 12.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0-14.4) versus 7.1% (95% CI, 6.3-8.0) and 8.2% (95% CI, 6.9-9.7) versus 4.4% (95% CI, 3.7-5.1), respectively. After risk adjustment, QRS prolongation was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03-1.56; P=0.02). There was a linear relationship between QRS duration and mortality (hazard ratio per 10 ms increase, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.12). Older age, male sex, prior myocardial infarction, lower ejection fraction, left ventricular hypertrophy, and left ventricular dilatation were associated with the development of QRS prolongation. CONCLUSIONS: QRS prolongation in African Americans was associated with increased mortality and heart failure hospitalization. Factors associated with developing QRS prolongation included age, male sex, prior myocardial infarction, and left ventricular structural abnormalities.