Findings in Managed Care Reported from Ohio State Wexner Medical Center (Improving Access and Quality of Care for Kidney Stone Patients In an Underserved Community): Managed Care

2023 FEB 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A new study on Managed Care is now available. According to news reporting out of Columbus, Ohio, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “There is a call to improve Medicaid patient access to health care, enhance quality and outcomes of care, and reduce overall financial burden. We sought to build a comprehensive kidney stone program to help patients navigate through the acute and preventive aspects of stone disease by increasing multidisciplinary referrals and compliance with recommendations and decreasing no-show rates at first follow-up and repeat stone encounters after initial evaluation.”

Funders for this research include Upper Payment Limit Grant of The Ohio State University, Department of Urology, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, “A collaborative multidisciplinary program was established at our single institution consisting of urology, nephrology, and dietary specialists to be piloted over a 3-year period. Medicaid-designated patients were evaluated during new patient encounters by urology specialists and then followed for outpatient follow-up, including specialty referrals to nephrology specialists and dietitians, for targeted preventive measures. Subjective compliance reports by patients following interventions and no-show rates at subsequent follow-ups were documented. We also followed patients 6 months beyond the initial encounter to assess repeat Emergency Department (ED) visits for acute stone episodes. One hundred eighty-three Medicaid-designated stone patients were evaluated from 2018 to 2021. Sixty-eight percent of patients identified as White, 18% identified as Black/African American, and 14% identified as ‘Other.’ Patients underwent specialty referrals to nephrology or a dietician in 47% and 42% of cases, respectively. Since the program’s implementation, reported patient compliance and referrals to multidisciplinary specialists increased from 72.9% to 81.30% and 21.2% to 56.20%, respectively. Repeat ED visits for stone-related encounters within 6 months of initial presentation remained relatively stable (from 17.60% to 18.9%), while no-show rates at first follow-up decreased from 20.0% to 6.30% by study conclusion. There is continued supporting evidence for the importance of a comprehensive kidney stone program specifically for patients of lower socioeconomic status following a 3-year implementation at our institution.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Encouraging results indicate increased access to multidisciplinary specialty referrals, with improvement in follow-up and reported compliance related to stone prevention strategies.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Improving Access and Quality of Care for Kidney Stone Patients In an Underserved Community. Journal of Endourology, 2022. Journal of Endourology can be contacted at: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, 140 Huguenot Street, 3RD Fl, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Megan Stout, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Dept. of Urology, Columbus, OH, United States. Additional authors for this research include Tasha Posid, Alicia Scimeca, Matthew Murtha, Max Yudovich, Dinah Diab, Bodo E. Knudsen, Michael W. Sourial, Molly Mcnamara, Aliza Khuhro, Ganesh Shidham and Elizabeth Weinandy.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1089/end.2022.0564. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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