Primary-care-provider Identification And Notification (PIANO)

Identifying Primary Care Providers and Notifying Them Upon Admission of Their Patients to New York-Presbyterian Hospital

New York-Presbyterian Hospital has created a system that notifies its primary care providers whenever their patients are admitted to the hospital. In this study, the investigators want to evaluate how accurate this system is and how it is affecting the primary providers and their health care delivery.

The investigators will interview the participating providers to understand if they were aware of the admission of their patients, and how they want to get involved in the care of that patient while he/she is in hospital. The investigators will also look at the data in the Electronic Health Record system to understand how providers are acting in response to the notifications. Lastly, the investigators will determine if the notifications have resulted in any change in the care of the patients, specifically in terms of the number of days from discharge until the next clinic visit.

Providers in this arm will receive a secure online notification whenever their patients are visited in the emergency department or admitted as an inpatient.

Providers in this arm will not get a secure online notification about their patient's visit to the emergency department or inpatient admission.

Providers in the intervention group will receive a secure electronic notification when their patients are visited in the emergency department or admitted as an inpatient.

The investigators will measure the time from each patient's discharge until their first follow-up visit in the outpatient setting. The investigators hypothesize that the automated notification will result is earlier post-discharge followups.

Once a primary care provider is notified about their patient's admission via a secure health message (SHM), the investigators will measure number of such SHMs that are read within 24 hours and within 7 days

The investigators will compare the rate of readmission for patients associated with providers in the two arms of the study, to assess if provider's notification about their patient's visit to the emergency department has any effect on rate of readmission.

Inclusion Criteria: Primary Care Provider at the New York Presbyterian. Exclusion Criteria: No clinic rotation during the study period