A Practice-Based Intervention to Improve Care for a Diverse Population of Women with Urinary Incontinence

"1. Provider Assessment. Physicians and advance practice providers will complete questionnaires before the intervention that assess their knowledge about the treatment for UI in women.~2. Mealtime Lecture. A group meeting will take place for the physicians in the intervention groups. All aspects of incontinence care will be addressed-including elements of the history and physical examination, initiation of conservative treatment, as well as when to refer for second-line therapies performed by specialists-utilizing the the principles of Academic Detailing.~3. Monthly individual feedback. Physicians and their clinical champion specialist will meet for individual coaching one month after the mealtime lecture to discuss and review the physician's previous performance as measured by the baseline chart abstraction. Physicians will have monthly check-ins with their clinical champion via a combination of quarterly synchronous Zooms and monthly asynchronous emails."

Intervention physicians will have access to electronic clinical decision support consisting of note templates, order sets, interruptive alerts, and a notification of patients who screen positive for UI.

"To reduce additional burden of care on the PCPs, the investigators will incorporate Advanced Practices Providers into the patient education and self-management portion of care. The APPs will be trained together with the intervention physicians, but they will also undergo additional standardized training on patient education, UI knowledge, providing instruction on Kegel exercises, shared decision making, and self management.~Patients will then be scheduled for a UI education and self-management session with the APP by telemedicine (video visit or telephone visit) within one month of their initial visit. For patients in need of an annual pelvic examination, and if the patient's PCP prefers to have the APP conduct the pelvic exam, a separate visit will be scheduled with the APP. A followup televisit will then be scheduled within three months of the initial APP visit, in order to assess the outcome of non-surgical treatment and determine if a specialist referral is indicated."

"In implementing the electronic consultation system in the private sector, the investigators will model the Expected Practice developed by the Los Angeles County Specialty-Primary Care Work Group. This eConsult system utilizes a kickback mechanism by which a specialist, who reviews the referral, can return it if it has not met certain baseline criteria (e.g. for a woman with OAB/urinary urgency: document negative UA, scheduled voids, titrate fluids to thirst, Kegels, antimuscarinics, optimize diuretic control, adjust any diuretics)."