Delayed feedback of physician performance versus immediate reminders to perform preventive care. Effects on physician compliance

• HIT Description: The Regenstrief Medical Record System used to assess the effects of physician reminders compared with physician feedback. At the time of the study, the system saved all diagnosis results from clinical laboratory, imaging studies, and reports of other studies, and contained automated pharmacy system along with the computer scheduling program. More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Increase preventive care
  
• Years of study: 1983-1984
  
• Study Design: RCT
  
• Outcomes: Utilization of services
  

• Settings: This study was performed at the general medical clinic of a hospital associated with the Indiana University School of Medicine.
• Intervention: The study assessed eleven preventive care protocols and clinicians were randomized to receive either two different kinds of delayed feedback regarding the individual provider's compliance with the preventive care protocols or computer generated reminders that were placed in patient's clinic charts. Over the seven months of the study 6,045 patients were cared for and they were eligible for over 16,000 protocols.
• Healthcare Utilization: The study reported mixed effects of these interventions on the utilization of preventive services, with some processes like fecal occult blood testing, and pneumococcal vaccination showing great increases, while others like TB skin testing and the use of anti-depressants being more modestly influenced or not influenced at all.
• Comparison of the reminder strategy: The study concluded that physician compliance with suggested preventive care protocols can be increased by both delayed feedback and immediate reminders, but that reminders have a greater effect.