Provider Education to Improve Knowledge Regarding the Diagnosis and Treatment of Insomnia in Primary Care.

The management of insomnia in older adults is suboptimal and leads to systemic problems for patients as well as increased costs to provide care. Evaluations of staff knowledge regarding the treatment of insomnia consistently indicate that primary care providers lack an understanding of how to manage and assess this problem accurately and effectively in practice. To address this gap in provider knowledge a quality improvement project to increase healthcare provider knowledge at a primary care facility in Miami, Florida, was undertaken. The project, which utilized a quasi-experimental pre-/post-intervention assessment framework, was carried out at IMC Health between June and July of 2021. A total of 12 primary care providers working at the facility agreed to participate in an educational program that was provided through a YouTube video created by the project’s co-investigator. Pre- and post-intervention assessments of provider knowledge were assessed using a modified version of the Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in Medical Education (ASKME) survey. A comparison of mean knowledge scores from the pre-intervention to the post-intervention demonstrated an increase from 49 to 98. A paired t-test was used to the results and demonstrated statistical significance at p = 0.001. The results support the use of a staff education to help improve knowledge of the management and treatment of insomnia in older adults. Based on the results, recommendations are made to expand the program to include more providers at diverse practice sites