Controlled Trial of a Health Maintenance Tracking System. Executive Summary

摘要

This study compared computerized versus manual health maintenance tracking to determine: (1) whether inactive patients would respond to health maintenance reminders, (2) if a computerized system would result in better provider compliance with the practice health maintenance protocol, and (3) the incremental cost of operating a computerized versus a manual health maintenance tracking system. Overall provider compliance with the health maintenance protocol increased 15 percentage points in the computerized tracking group and 4 percentage points in the manual group. The computerized tracking group had significantly higher provider compliance than the manual group for eight of eleven procedures. Active patients receiving computerized reminders were more likely to continue to be active than patients in the manual reminder control group. The computerized tracking system was acceptable to providers and cost $0.78 per patient per year to operate. The computerized system did not result in increased office visits or patient billings.