A digital platform to support communication and organization in the general practice: Evaluation of healthcare usage and costs using claims data of a health insurer

• Published in: International journal of medical informatics (Shannon, Ireland) Vol. 181; p. 105296
• Main Authors: Willemsen, R.F., Aardoom, J.J., van der Galiën, O.P., van de Vijver, S., Chavannes, N.H., Versluis, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Communication; Delivery of Health Care; eHealth; General Practice; General Practitioners; Health Care Costs; Health care utilization; Humans; Insurance Carriers; Retrospective Studies; Retrospective study; Teleconsultations; Health care costs; General practice; Teleconsultations; Retrospective study; Health care utilization; eHealth
• ISSN: 1386-5056; 1872-8243; 1872-8243
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2023.105296

•The pressure on general practitioners is high and rising.•Ways to ensure the accessibility of primary care need to be found.•A digital platform supporting organization and communication can increase consultations with general practitioners and associated costs.•A digital platform can enhance the accessibility of care for patients and thereby lead to an increased amount of consultations.•More research is needed to explore workload for GPs when using a digital platform. The pressure on general practitioners (GPs) is rising due to the increasing demand for care and a decreasing availability of GPs. eHealth is seen as one of the solutions to enhance accessibility and reduce workload. A platform supporting the organization and communication in general practice has been developed offering services, such as econsultations. This study aims to evaluate healthcare usage and costs of patients using this platform by comparing these outcomes (1) before and after implementation and (2) an intervention with a matched control group. This study is a retrospective observational cohort study. To evaluate the longitudinal impact of the implementation on healthcare usage, mixed model Poisson analyses were used with time as a factor term for the within-subject analysis and exposure to the platform as a factor term and an interaction term (i.e., exposure X 6-months) in the between-subject analysis. Cost analyses were done with mixed model analyses of variance over time. The total number of GP consultations significantly increased after compared to before implementation (i.e., Rate = 1.52; p < 0.001). The number of GP consultations was higher in the intervention compared to the control group (respectively, Rate = 1.23; p = 0.035). Healthcare costs increased for GP consultations after compared to before implementation (€13,57; p < 0.001). The costs for GP consults were significantly higher in the intervention compared to the control group (€7,06; p 0.018). This study showed a rise in GP consultations and costs when implementing a digital platform. This increase was presumably and partly caused by circumstances in one of the two included practices. Moreover, creating new options for contacting and communicating with the GP can enhance care accessibility and thereby driving an increase in consultations. This digital platform is a promising working method in general practice to facilitate patients and provide GPs with more flexibility.