Using Electronic Referrals to Address Health Disparities and Improve Blood Pressure Control
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive And Behavioral MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2019-08-22Keywords
Masssachusettsblood pressure control
health disparities
electronic referrals
community organizations
Cardiovascular Diseases
Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Preventive Medicine
Race and Ethnicity
Telemedicine
Therapeutics
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INTRODUCTION: Massachusetts developed and used bidirectional electronic referrals to connect clinical patients across the state to interventions run by community organizations. The objective of our study was to determine whether the use of Massachusetts's electronic referral system (MA e-Referral) reached racial/ethnic groups experiencing health disparities and whether it was associated with improved health outcomes. METHODS: We assembled encounter-level medical records from September 2013 through June 2017 for patients at Massachusetts clinics funded by the Clinical Community Partnerships for Prevention into 2 cohorts. First, all patients meeting program eligibility guidelines for an e-Referral (N = 21,701) were examined to assess the distribution of e-Referrals among populations facing health disparities; second, a subset of 3,817 people with hypertension were analyzed to detect changes in blood pressure after e-Referral to an evidence-based community intervention. RESULTS: Non-Hispanic black (OR, 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-1.6) and Hispanic patients (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4) had higher odds than non-Hispanic white patients of being referred electronically. Patients completing their hypertension intervention had 74% (95% CI, 1.2-2.5) higher odds of having an in-control blood pressure reading than patients who were not electronically referred. CONCLUSION: Clinical to community linkage to interventions through MA e-Referral reached non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and Spanish-speaking populations and was associated with improved blood pressure control.Source
Prev Chronic Dis. 2019 Aug 22;16:E114. doi: 10.5888/pcd16.180583. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.5888/pcd16.180583Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/41178PubMed ID
31441768Related Resources
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This publication is in the public domain per the publisher's copyright policy posted at https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/for_authors/general_information.htm.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.5888/pcd16.180583
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