Abstract
Background
In order to apply current treatment recommendations for psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a complete assessment of psoriatic disease domains must be completed by the clinician. This includes a musculoskeletal examination (including tender and swollen joints, dactylitis, enthesitis, and axial disease) as well as skin and nail examination. Documentation in the clinician’s note serves as a proxy for disease assessment.
Objective
To explore differences in documentation of psoriatic domains between PsA specialist and general rheumatologists at 2 academic centers.
Methods
We identified PsA patients seen by either general rheumatologists or by PsA combined clinic specialist providers at 2 established PPACMAN (Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Clinics Multicenter Advancement Network) sites. Records were assessed for the presence (and extent) of documentation for musculoskeletal and cutaneous PsA domains. We also examined accuracy of ICD coded diagnoses to understand the extent to which discrete data from the electronic medical record can be used to evaluate completeness of assessment.
Results
PsA combined clinic specialist providers documented disease domains significantly more consistently compared to generalists, including tender and swollen joint counts (P < 0.001), assessment of spondyloarthritis (P = 0.017), and presence/extent of skin involvement (P < 0.001). Additionally, PsA specialists more consistently coded for both psoriasis (PsO) and PsA.
Conclusions
In this multicenter, retrospective study, compared to generalists, PsA combined-clinic specialist providers more thoroughly documented both musculoskeletal and cutaneous psoriatic disease domains and ICD coding of PsO for patients, highlighting gaps in assessment and documentation. These findings underscore the need for improved training in psoriatic disease assessment and simplified modalities for documentation.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
