Effective communication provides early intervention among Medicare patients
Authors: O’Lawrence Henry , Poyaoan-Linzaga Michell 
Published: April 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the association between patients who talked to their doctor about their risk of falling, or occurrence of balance problem. This study analyzed a secondary data set based on the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) for the Medicare Advantage patients of 65 years and older. This study guided by two hypotheses that: patients who talked to their doctor about falling or balance problem are more likely to have fallen in the past than those who did not talk to their doctor about their fall risk; and patients talking to their doctor about a fall or balance problem are more likely to receive an early intervention such as patient education to prevent a future fall.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized a secondary data set to test its hypotheses. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is dedicated to monitoring the quality of care provided to Medicare population in a managed care setting. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research conducts the HOS to measure outcomes of quality improvement interventions developed by CMS in collaboration with the National Committee for Quality Assurance for Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs). The measures are focused on assessing the physical functioning and mental health being of Medicare beneficiaries and are aligned with reporting evidence of standards of care. Medicare HOS is administered in each Spring surveying a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries from MAOs that have a minimum of 500 enrollees; the cohort is surveyed again two years later as a follow-up measurement.

Findings

Reporting of a fall or balance problem is a critical component in fall prevention strategies. This study analyzed the distribution of beneficiaries who talked with their doctor about a fall or balance problem to understand if personal disposition (i.e. social class – educational level, gender, and race) would have been a factor in patients communicating with their doctor about their risk factors. The study found that 67.77 percent of patients who talked with their doctor about a fall or balance problem have at least a high school education compared with 32.23 percent who have less than a high school education or GED.

Research limitations/implications

All patients who responded to the survey and fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Therefore, the data presented a limitation due to a self-report of no doctor visits, which could indicate inopportunity for provider-patient communication to take place. Additionally, such an information on fall or balance problem, including actual fall occurrence in the past 12 months, was based on self-report that could present inaccuracy since the elderly population tend to have diminished or poor memory, which may also be problematic.

Practical implications

Although this specific interaction starts with patient reporting of a health problem such as a fall or balance problem, provider must take a proactive approach in deploying prevention strategies, such as to conduct a comprehensive fall-risk assessment regardless of a report of a fall history by the patient. Further investigation of this study is recommended to ascertain pre-dispositional factors that affect patient communication, in order to address any barriers that could impede patient-provider collaboration. Nonetheless, enhancing patient-provider communication is fundamental to any quality intervention strategies such as fall prevention.

Social implications

Another key finding in this study is that patient communication facilitates fall prevention. Patients who talked to their doctor about their fall or gait problem were provided with patient education on how to prevent falls by their doctor. The provider is informed on patient’s balance problem, which leads to further evaluation of patient health status in order to identify other related factors since a comprehensive fall-risk assessment would have been likely conducted providing adequate information beyond the fall occurrence. This affirms the need for provider-patient communication to serve as catapult for effective care coordination, which is effectual in any intervention strategies.

Originality/value

Fall prevention is increasingly drawing attention and gaining momentum among healthcare organizations (including non-managed care) since falls and fall-related injuries are easily preventable (Lachet al., 2011). Efforts that can identify and accurately analyze patient health status, including intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors, promote effective interaction between patient and provider. This study has shown the positive effect of patient communication in order to allow doctors to effectively intervene (i.e. prevent a future fall) through the provision of patient education.