Table 1.

Characteristics of Interactions^a Providing Care for Patients Outside of Home Visits (N=1151)

Variable	Frequency (%)
Whom/what the interaction was with, n (%)
Patient	97 (8.4)
Patient’s family	218 (18.9)
Visiting nurse	285 (24.8)
Home aide	38 (3.3)
Other physician	49 (4.3)
Pharmacy	56 (4.9)
Visiting Doctors office staff	53 (4.6)
No one (eg Review EMR only)	271 (23.5)
Physical Therapist/Occupational Therapist /Speech therapy	20 (1.7)
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) vendor	8 (0.7)
Outside social work	13 (1.1)
Agency	20 (1.7)
Other	10 (0.9)
Mode of interaction/event, n (%)
Telephone	704 (61.2)
Email	29 (2.5)
EMR	311 (27.0)
Fax	11 (1.0)
Written (eg letter)	41 (3.6)
Face-to-face	31 (2.7)
Other	0 (0.0)
Nature of interaction/event, n (%)
Electronic prescription refill	108 (9.4)
Printed prescription refill	33 (2.9)
Prescription preapproval	5 (0.4)
DME Rx	46 (4.1)
Review labs/imaging/chart	128 (11.1)
Left message	71 (6.2)
Coordination of care and status update/change	562 (48.8)
Caregiver stress	29 (2.5)
Family meeting	1 (0.1)
Health form completion	48 (4.2)
Noted work by office staff	66 (5.7)
Other	5 (0.4)
Outcome, n (%)
Medication use/change	129 (11.2)
Medication refill	139 (12.1)
Referral	91 (7.9)
Order labs	46 (4.0)
Order imaging	14 (1.2)
Discharge planning	47 (4.1)
Urgent visit	33 (2.9)
Emergency Room visit	23 (2.0)
Reassurance/Counseling	126 (11.0)
Change in management of care	75 (6.5)
No change in care	479 (41.6)
Other	352 (30.6)
Prior visit, n (%)b	141 (26.4)
Urgent visit	21 (14.8)
Post visit, n (%)b	104 (19.5)
Urgent visit	29 (27.4)

Abbreviations: EMR=Electronic medical records; PT=Physical therapy; OT=Occupational therapy; SW=Social work; DME=Durable medical equipment

^aTotal number of interactions in 3 weeks: 1151; Total duration in 3 weeks: 5515 minutes (92 hours)

^bN= 537 unique patients; Prior visit in the seven days before the interaction or post visit in the seven days after the interaction