Advisory Committee Chair
Stephen J O'Connor
Advisory Committee Members
Sue S Feldman
Rubin Pillay
Haiyan Qu
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2022
Degree Name by School
Executive Doctor of Science (DSc) School of Health Professions
Abstract
Background: Significant issues of inconsistent patient services in the U.S. health system impact health outcomes and create high cost. Limitations of immobility, inefficiency, and accessibility sacrifice patient treatment, delay recovery, and escalate health risks from the lack of primary care physicians. The primary purpose of this study was to examine meVisit, a connective mobile technology, as a feasible primary care solution to address escalating health costs by reducing emergency room (ER) visits and inpatient admissions (IA). Methods: The feasibility study applied descriptive and inferential statistics to secondary data (n=4,024) and compared the two independent patient groups from the same large rural practice between 2011 and 2017: meVisit (n=1,524) and non-meVisit (n=2,500). A two-sample t-test compared the groups, then a negative binomial regression predicted meVisit ER and inpatient counts; a Mann-Whitney U non-parametric test adjusted for count data possibly skewed to compare the differences. Results: Findings revealed statistical differences (p-values < .0001) between the meVisit and non-meVisit group, both ER and IA. Most noticeable was that 40% of meVisit patients did not require follow-up ER visits vs. 5% of non-meVisit patients. Conclusions: meVisit was an effective and viable method for providing greater access for patients and reducing unnecessary ER visits and IA admissions. More research is needed to strengthen findings towards specificity measures of patient access, care, iv recovery time, and expenditures. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, findings should be expanded longitudinally and examined as a financial medical model.
Recommended Citation
Thornbury, Neil Coyer, "meVisit: Value-Based Approach to Primary Care Delivery by mTelemedicine Utilization Applied Through Lean Principles" (2022). All ETDs from UAB. 313.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/313