Patient Lost to Follow-up: Opportunities and Challenges in Delivering Primary Care in Academic Medical Centers

Background Academic health centers (AHCs) face unique challenges in providing continuity to a medically and socially complex patient population. Little is known about what drives patient loss in these settings. Objective Determine physician- and patient-based factors associated with patient loss in AHCs. Design Retrospective cohort study, embedded qualitative analysis. Setting Academic health center. Participants All visits from 7/1/2014 to 6/30/2019; 89 physicians (51%) participated in a qualitative analysis. Measures Physician-based factors (gender, years of service, hours of practice per week, trainee status, and departure during the study period) and patient-based factors (age, gender, race, limited English proficiency, public health insurance, chronic illness burden, and severe psychiatric illness burden) and their association with patient loss to follow-up, defined as a lapse in provider visit greater than 3 years. Results We identified 402,415 visits for 41,876 distinct patients. A total of 9332 (22.3%) patients were lost to follow-up. Patient factors associated with loss to follow-up included patient age < 40 (HR 3.12 (2.94-3.33)), identification as non-white (HR 1.07 (1.10-1.13)), limited English proficiency (HR 1.18 (1.04-1.33)), and use of public insurance (HR 1.12 (1.04-1.21)). Provider factors associated with patient loss included trainee status (HR 3.74 (2.43-5.75)) and having recently departed from the practice (HR 1.98, 1.66-2.35). Structured interviews with clinical providers revealed unfavorable relationships with providers and staff (35%), inconvenience accessing primary care (23%), unreliable health insurance (18%), difficulty accessing one's primary care provider (14%), and patient/provider transitions (10%) as reasons for patient loss. Conclusions Younger patient age, markers of social vulnerability, and physician transiency are associated with patient loss at AHCs, providing targets to improve continuity of care within these settings.

Automated summary

This study investigated the factors associated with patient loss in academic health centers. The results showed that patient factors such as age, race, language proficiency, and insurance status were associated with patient loss. Physician factors including trainee status and recent departure were also associated with patient loss. Structured interviews revealed the reasons for patient loss. These findings provide targets for improving continuity of care in academic health centers.