Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health has been using nurses and medical assistants to respond to patient messages that fall within the scope of their responsibilities, which in turn has lowered the amount of messages physicians receive by 25 percent, EpicShares reported Aug. 21.
Nurses and medical assistants respond to patient messages and can escalate messages to providers when appropriate, according to the publication. This group also does this for patient replies to a provider's message.
The health system also only lets a patient message a provider they have seen in the past year and closes a patient's messaging thread after 30 days.
The initiatives have resulted in a 25 percent decrease in physicians' message volumes.