Primary Care Provider Continuity Is Associated With Improved Preventive Service Ordering During Brief Visits for Acute Symptoms

Abstract

Background:If a patient presents for an acute care visit and sees their assigned primary care provider (PCP), they may be more likely to receive preventive and other services than a patient not seeing their assigned PCP.Methods:After exclusion of 2 visits with insufficient information, we reviewed 98 consecutive, outpatient internal medicine 15-minute acute care visits comparing patients seeing their assigned PCP with those seeing a non-PCP provider. The primary outcome, preventive service ordering, was measured in 2 ways: percentage of patient visits with any preventive service ordered and the total number of preventive services ordered as a proportion of all preventive service items due for each entire cohort. The secondary outcome of other work completed was assessed by comparing tests and consults ordered, and by counting the number of physical examination elements and discrete medical diagnoses documented.Results:The PCPs were significantly more likely than non-PCPs to order any preventive service 45...