- Creating a path to faster diagnosis and treatment
- Improving or eliminating wait times for specialists’ visits
- Increasing access to sub-specialties
- Minimizing worsened health outcomes resulting from delayed patient care
How can an organization measure better, more efficient, and more effective care? In this session, Eric Urquiza, Chief Client Officer at AristaMD, showcases best practices for measuring the impact of eConsults on practice success and patient specialty care access.
Eric Urquiza
Chief Client Officer, AristaMD
Eric Urquiza has over 20 years of experience driving transformational healthcare IT programs that elevate patient care and enhance outcomes through innovative technological solutions. His extensive experience includes successfully leading strategic client relationships and fostering increased provider adoption of telehealth solutions. This has resulted in a tangible impact, particularly in improving efficacy for underserved and vulnerable populations on a national scale.
Prior to joining AristaMD, Eric played key leadership roles at AccessHope, a wholly-owned subsidiary of City of Hope, where he spearheaded the implementation and client services strategy for an oncology telehealth startup. His experience also extends to leadership roles in client and project management teams at Oracle Cerner and Omnicell, Inc.
Eric holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Redlands. Residing in Southern California with his wife and two college-studying children, he remains dedicated to driving positive change in healthcare through innovative solutions and strategic leadership.
Alternative to Curbside Consults: The eConsult – Patient Safety First
The practice of curbside consult is routine for many practicing physicians. However, a brief review of potential shortcomings of this practice is essential to ensure solutions are in place to enable the best possible patient care. An eConsult is an evolved, official form of the curbside consult that addresses many inherent issues within these informal exchanges, including missing or incomplete patient information, the lack of access to physical exam findings, and other relevant data/or lab results.
The literature review demonstrates that approximately one-third of the information needs of family physicians or PCPs are fulfilled using informal (or curbside) consults. A curbside consult refers to a process by which a provider—informally and without documentation—receives information from another provider to assist in managing a patient. There are several criteria for a consultation to be considered a “curbside consultation,” which this article explores in more detail.
PCPs self-report obtaining an average of 3.2 curbside consults per week, while subspecialists report receiving approximately 3.6 per week. One feature of managed care has been to better work the triage of specialist referrals to reduce the cost of care for healthcare payers. As a result, many PCPs have had to assume greater responsibility for maintaining conditions previously considered within the realm of the subspecialist. Thus, it is likely that PCPs will increase the use of curbside consultations to obtain clinical advice and information in an attempt to maintain quality care while limiting the number of formal referrals.