Patient and Visit Characteristics Associated with Use of Direct Scheduling in Primary Care Practices

Abstract

Importance: Medical practices increasingly allow patients to schedule their own visits through online patient portals, yet little is known about who adopts direct scheduling or how this service is used. Objective: To determine patient and visit characteristics associated with direct scheduling, visit patterns, and potential implications for access and continuity in the primary care setting. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used electronic health record (EHR) data from 17 adult primary care practices in a large academic medical center in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. Participants included patients 18 years or older who were attributed in the EHR to an active primary care physician at 1 of the included primary care practices, were enrolled in the patient portal, and had at least 1 visit to 1 of these practices between March 1, 2018, and March 1, 2019, the period of analysis. Data were analyzed from October 25, 2019, to April 14, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Adoption of direct scheduling, defined as at least 1 use during the study period. Usual scheduling was defined as scheduling with clinic staff by telephone or in person. Results: We examined 134225 completed visits by 62080 patients (mean [SD] age, 51.1 [16.4] years, 37793 [60.9%] women) attributed to 140 primary care physicians at 17 primary care practices. A total of 5020 patients (8.1% [95% CI, 7.9%-8.3%]) adopted direct scheduling, with an age range of 18 to 95 years. Compared with nonadopters in the same practices, adopters were younger (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] per additional year, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.98-0.99]) and were more likely to be White (AOR, 1.09 [95% CI, 1.01-1.17]) and commercially insured (AOR vs uninsured, 1.40 [95% CI, 1.11-1.76]) and to have more comorbidities (AOR per additional comorbidity, 1.07 [95% CI, 1.04-1.11]). Compared with usually scheduled visits, directly scheduled visits were more likely to be for general medical examinations (1979 visits [36.7%] vs 26519 visits [21.9%]; P