Reaching Health Care Providers with Emergency Information

Overview

PERRC 2

Photo courtesy of the Indian Health Service/US Department of Health and Human Services.

Communication between public health agencies and health care providers is critical for effective emergency preparedness and response. Public health agencies typically rely on the internet, e-mail, telephone and broadcast fax for these communications. Although text messaging is an increasingly more common way for the general population to communicate, it is an uncommon way for public health to convey information to health care providers. In an emergency situation, would text messaging be an effective way for public health to communicate with providers? What is the most effective way to deliver public health messages to health care providers?

To answer these questions, NWPERRC researchers are comparing the effectiveness of fax, e-mail, and text messaging for communication of public health alerts to different types of health care providers in urban and rural settings. The Rapid Emergency Alerting Communications in Health (REACH) study is also looking at what effect public health messages have on disease reporting by health care providers. Findings from this study will inform public health agencies about which communication media are most effective under different circumstances.

This five-year project was funded in 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Methods

This study uses a randomized controlled research design. Nurse practitioners, primary care and emergency physicians, pharmacists, physician assistants, and veterinarians from three sites (two Washington state counties and the state of Montana) are recruited and randomly assigned to receive public health messages by fax, e-mail, cell phone texting, or are assigned to a control group that does not receive messages. Public health messages are sent to providers over a 15-month period. After each message, providers are interviewed by telephone. Interview questions elicit information about message recall, credibility, and trustworthiness. Providers are also asked if they clicked on an "information" link that provides updates and additional information about the message topic.

Notes from the field

  • Recruited and randomized providers to receive public health alerts via email, fax, or cell phone text messaging, or to a control group in King County (n=530),  the state of Montana (n=240), and in Spokane County (n=81).
  • Completed sending quarterly messages in King County and MT.
  • Achieved high response rates to follow-up calls in King County (76.98-87.92%) and MT (87.5-91.67%).
  • Sent first alert in Spokane County in October 2011.

Researchers

Janet Baseman, PhD, MPH, Principal Investigator
Andreas Stergachis, PHD, RPh, Co-Investigator
Jeffrey Duchin, MD, Co-Investigator
Steven Helgerson, MD, MPH,  Co-Investigator
Scott Lindquist, MD, MPH, Co-Investigator
Debra Revere, MLIS, MA, Research Coordinator

For questions about this project, please contact Debra Revere at drevere@u.washington.edu.