Provider Co-Management Index (PCMI-Full) for assessing patient co-management

This technology is a 20 item survey instrument (PCMI-Full) that measures cooperation between clinicians to enhance patient care and maintain successful co-management of patient needs.

Unmet Need: Inability to maintain perfect cohesiveness between cooperating clinicians

Current data suggests that rising patient volume and more complex patient care needs present challenges for an individual provider to manage all recommended care needs of every patient. This problem has resulted in an opportunity for nurse practitioners and physician assistants to fill this role and ensure that patients are seen in a timely manner and tended to successfully. However, patients could be seen by more than one clinician when discussing the same health problem, making it crucial for the providers to communicate well and deliver optimal patient care. Few tools exist to assess co-management cohesiveness within a clinician dyad and to identify areas for improvement.

The Technology: Survey to measure and report clinician cooperativity

This survey instrument measures how well two clinicians work together cooperatively when managing the same patient in a healthcare setting. The PCMI-Full version includes a 20 item instrument that isolates which aspects of interdisciplinary interactions may be suboptimal and require intervention to improve the work environment and subsequent patient, provider, ad system outcomes. Using a numbered scale, both clinicians are asked to provide thoughts on the other provider, the actions they have taken so far in patient treatment, and the nature of their relationship as medical professionals. The survey tool is available in the English language in either paper or electronic form with ongoing efforts to expand its utility in French. This technology can be used to assess interprofessional relations and alert clinicians to sub-optimal co-management while continuing to provide quality patient care.

This technology has been widely tested and validated in clinical settings in samples of PCPs, NPs, and physician assistants (PAs).

Applications:

• Instrument to enhance communication between clinicians
• Identifier of personal or professional relationship problems
• Identifier of potential bias in treatment advice or patient care
• Research tool to study clinician coordination of patient care needs
• Training tool for co-managing clinicians

Advantages:

• Ensures cooperative care leads to successful patient treatment
• Optimizes clinician communication
• Allows managing staff or researchers to identify trends in cooperative treatment
• Cost-effective
• Widely validated in samples of PCPs, NPs, and PAs
• Providers can be of the same or different disciplines

Lead Inventor:

Allison Andreno Norful, Ph.D., RN, ANP-BC

Related Publications:

• Norful AA, Ye S, Shaffer J, Poghosyan L. “Development and Psychometric Testing of the Provider Co-Management Index: Measuring Nurse Practitioner-Physician Co-Management” J Nurs Meas. 2018 Dec; 26(3): E127-E141.

• Norful AA, de Jacq K, Carlino R, Poghosyan L. “Nurse Practitioner-Physician Comanagement: A Theoretical Model to Alleviate Primary Care Strain” Ann Fam Med. 2018 May; 16(3): 250-256.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU21085, CU21271

• Licensing Contact: Sam Galindo