By Kathleen Riordan and Apurva Subramanian, healthcare experts, PA Consulting.
Over the next decade one in five US residents will be over the age of 65, over 70 percent of whom will require some form of Long-Term Services and Support (LTSS) as they continue to age. The resources required to meet the care needs of our senior generation will triple by 2040.
The industry is reaching a tipping point and CMS – the primary payer for these services – is going to look for innovative ways to curb costs while maintaining high-quality, patient-centric care. Value-based payment models in other health service organizations incentive providers to do just this. Historically, LTSS have been left out of value-based care payment arrangements; however, with the increase in use and cost of LTSS, CMS is gradually incorporating value-based care models in this industry to nudge providers into more innovative ways of delivering care.
For example, in 2019, skilled nursing facilities began
receiving quality-adjusted payments for all Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS)
patient-stays. CMS is now withholding 2 percent of all Medicare FFS payments
and giving facilities the opportunity to earn this back through an assessment
of its performance on the 30-day all-cause hospital readmission quality
measure. Recent results show that 73 percent of nearly 15,000 skilled nursing
facilities reporting data received payment penalties for performance on the
hospital readmission measure, with 20 percent receiving the maximum penalty of
the entire 2 percent withholding.
Now is the time for long-term care organizations to act, as the initiatives CMS is proposing will significantly affect the industry. On the agenda for CMS is a range of payment incentives including:
Adding two new quality measures in 2020 to assess health information sharing from skilled nursing facilities to other providers and to patients.
Transitioning all Medicare Part A payments to skilled nursing facilities into a new model that reimburses based on the clinical condition of the patient and their service needs.
Implementing new payment rules for all Medicare-certified home health agencies to incorporate home health services into value-based payment models by eliminating therapy thresholds in determining payments and reimbursing based on the clinical condition of the patient.
Potentially expanding the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing model across the US.
Increasing payment adjustments up to 8 percent by 2022 for Medicare-certified Home Health Agencies operating in 9 HHVBP pilot states.
The payment models in both skilled nursing and home health represent a shift that CMS is making to include all ancillary providers into the value-based care arena. Long-term care organizations can learn from hospitals and physician groups who proactively approached this coming wave of value-based payment reform. Organizations that are collecting and acting on data in a timely manner, establishing efficient cost-reducing processes, and integrating effectively within the care continuum will thrive in the new financial environment.
So how can long-term care providers implement an effective value-based care model? Follow these four steps.
Understand value-based program requirements and determine the necessary people, processes, and technologies needed to adjust operations to achieve program success. The challenging part for long-term care is going to be in operationalizing new value-based care program requirements. Those organizations that can effectively arrange the right people, processes, and technology stand to soar above the rest. Advancements in technology have enabled organizations to progress further, faster. Currently, many vendors in the market offer telemedicine technologies and remote patient monitoring applications to care for high-acuity patients in more effective ways. For example, long term care providers can use telehealth to provide support to elder patients allowing them to stay in their homes longer. A great example is the Argenti care technology program in the UK that placed a configured Amazon Echo device in on-demand senior care services, the pilot was highly successful and improved outcomes and reduced cost. Some skilled nursing facilities are even investing in putting in motion detectors in patient rooms to assess movement anomalies to ensure patients get the right care when they need it. Investing in the right technologies to ensure a high-quality care experience can accelerate a LTSS provider’s ability to adapt to value-based care models.
Use data and processes improvement methodologies to recognize and reduce unnecessary costs and develop best-practice processes. Long-term care service providers should already be collecting and using data to generate insights to inform best-practices in both the cost and delivery of care. The Visiting Nurses Association of New York, the oldest nonprofit home and community-based health organization, is already using robust data analytics to drive clinical and operational decision-making by creating a model to proactively predict when a patient may benefit from a different or higher level of care. For those organizations without a robust data analytics strategy, steps can be taken to capture, track, and analyze clinical and claims data to understand population-based characteristics and care needs. In doing so, LTSS organizations can establish benchmarks and reporting to create the drive toward more clinically and cost-effective approaches to care.
Build relationships with providers across the care continuum to create open lines of communication and develop smooth processes for patient care transitions. Crucial to the success of long-term care organizations in transitioning to value-based models is the ability to develop clear processes and means of communication with providers along the patient care continuum to ensure smooth transitions in and out of care and a streamlined flow of information among providers. Currently, NYU Langone Health is partnering with 11 high-quality skilled nursing facilities to create a preferred network where organizations are coming together to improve care transitions by openly sharing quality, readmission, and length of stay data. In doing so, these organizations are learning from one another to improve their own performance standards and proactively prepare for additional upcoming incentives created through value-based care payment models. The transition to a culture of continuous improvement is often a challenge for organizations, as employees at all levels have to recognize and work to overcome the ineffectiveness in largely entrenched processes and procedures. However, in building a culture of continuous improvement where all employees have the capacity and ability to step outside of their daily whirlwind of job demands and look for efficiencies ultimately leads to innovative and productive ways of thinking and acting.
Partner with local community organizations to enhance your current service offerings. Value-based care models are intended to keep costs down while ensuring patients continue to receive high-quality medical care. The elderly population is a vulnerable population and requires additional support systems in place to have all their health care needs met. Building connections with local community organizations to help patients as they transition out of nursing care to their home or while receiving in-home care can set your organization up for success. Local area agencies on aging can connect long-term care providers with the right community resources to support their patient populations. Local community organizations can provide support with social care needs like transportation, fall-risk assessments, nutrition and meal preparation, community-based engagement, all of which have been shown to not only reduce hospital readmission rates, but also improve the health and well-being of the elderly.
Long-term care service providers need to invest time and budget into comprehensive data collection and analysis, implementation of process improvement methodologies, and advanced technological devices to proactively adjust to payment reform. Navigating the integration of value-based care models for long-term service and support organizations can seem like a dauting journey. But we have seen that organizations that prepare effective strategies for implementing the four activities outlined above are more likely to experience a smoother transition.
Tech Mahindra, a provider of digital transformation and consulting services and solutions has announced the acquisition of Mad*Pow, a strategic design consultancy headquartered in the US. The addition of Mad*Pow to the Tech Mahindra portfolio is expected to help bolster capabilities in customer experience (CX) and digital transformation such as research, experience strategy and service design, user experience design, behavior change design, content strategy, mobile app and web development, design ops, data science and analytics.
The Boston-area consultancy will complement to Tech Mahindra’s existing offerings and capabilities across design, marketing and commerce.
CP Gurnani, managing director and CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “Mad*Pow’s acquisition is in sync with Tech Mahindra’s global digital charter. With this collaboration, our digital footprint will take a deeper root not just in the US, but in the wider ecosystem world over. I welcome the Mad*Pow team into the Tech Mahindra family, and I am confident that together we will achieve greater success.”
A
pioneer in the experience design field, Mad*Pow leverages strategic design and
the psychology of motivation to create innovative experiences and compelling
digital solutions for global clients. Mad*Pow’s unique human-centered design
approach is fueled by deep empathy and an understanding of behavior science,
which will create real differentiation for Tech Mahindra’s 900+ customers.
Will Powley, founder and chief creative officer, Mad*Pow, said, “Tech Mahindra’s experience and reach will enable Mad*Pow to scale faster by greatly enhancing its digital transformation offerings with existing and potential clients. The collaboration will also create vast opportunities for Mad*Pow to provide it’s unique and differentiated strategic design services to Tech Mahindra’s large global customer base.”
Vivek Agarwal, global head of corporate development, Tech Mahindra, said, “We are excited to announce Tech Mahindra’s key acquisition of a digital asset in North America. The addition of Mad*Pow to Tech Mahindra family will greatly enhance our ability to create and deliver enhanced customer experiences for our global clients.”
Mad*Pow’s
acquisition underlines Tech Mahindra’s focus on digital growth, under the
TechMNxt charter, which focuses on leveraging next generation technologies and
solutions to disrupt and enable digital transformation, and to build and
deliver cutting-edge technology solutions and services to address real world
problems to meet the customer’s evolving and dynamic needs.
By Abhinav Shashank, CEO and co-founder, Innovaccer.
Fact 1: As per the latest data made available by the Office for Civil Rights for HHS, more than 208,000 privacy-related complaints have been made in the last 16 years.
Fact 2: If a hospital makes a call to a patient
to remind them of their upcoming appointment, they might receive a class action
complaint about violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
While
these two facts may not necessarily be related to one another, we clearly need
to take a hard look at the increasing calls to protect patient privacy. But
does that mean providers cannot send a text message to their patients?
Certainly not!
California’s latest policy for text
message technology for Medicaid plans: A case study
The
1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was put in place to
safeguard people from automated text or other telephonic messages, limits
organizations from reaching out to their patients through text messages. TCPA
can also levy financial penalties on organizations if they are found guilty of
violating their policies. On the other hand, the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, require every “Covered Entity or
Business Associate that comes into contact with Protected Health Information
(PHI)” to follow the compliance policies, something that is accepted as a rule
of thumb in the healthcare world. For any organization looking to reach out to
patients remotely, both HIPAA and TCPA policies are extremely important to
comprehend and follow.
In
today’s context where patient engagement through text messages has emerged as
one of the biggest avenues for optimizing care quality, the TCPA is losing its
sheen to some extent in the healthcare domain. While no one denies the
importance of TCPA, it does cause some roadblocks for organizations looking to
enhance patient engagement in remote areas and population segments.
The
California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) recently issued a policy
to set guidelines regarding how Medicaid plans can safely use the text
messaging technology to connect with beneficiaries. This is critical since one
out of three people in California are Medicaid beneficiaries.
The
latest ruling allows organizations to reach out to their patients through text
messaging after submitting an approval form to the concerned regulators clearly
mentioning the structure as well as the intent of such reach out campaigns.
They also need to create proper avenues for privacy protection and give users a
clear opt-out option. However, once such campaigns are approved, the payer can
then run such programs without any additional regulatory clearances. Further,
such outreach messages must be made available at no cost to Medicaid members.
What can we learn from the example of
DHCS?
According to a study, hospitals could reduce their discharge time by 50 percent if conducted by secure text messaging, saving healthcare facilities an average of $557,253 per year.
Secure
text messaging is indeed a big deal. Make no mistakes, privacy and security
should still remain the top-most priority while enabling such mechanisms, and
password protection is something that we should all consider. However, in an
age when we are shifting our focus on precision medicine and advanced robotic
surgeries, the ability to create a secure system for text reminders should not
be a big deal.
The
text message service is indeed the most prevalent form of communication for Americans
younger than 50, and about 80% of people state it as the preferred way of receiving
notifications. The latest DHCS policy will empower payers to connect with their
populations like never before, an ability that would allow them to initiative
preventive care and scheduling, while ultimately reducing care and cost and
improving outcomes. It can be safely assumed that the latest initiative by DHCS
is a breakthrough step in this direction.
Organizations need the ability to meet
their patients where they want
I
remember one of my friends asking me a very simple yet important question, “If
I can connect with my colleague based out of London in literally 10 seconds,
why does it take my provider so long to tell me that my appointment has been
canceled?” I had no answer.
We
cannot expect a person whose calendar is booked for the next 10 days to walk
into a clinic for a regular check-up and wait idly for a couple of hours due to
inefficient scheduling practices. Worse still, imagine a situation where a
person takes time out to visit a facility for their Annual Wellness Visit (AWV)
only to find out that their appointment has been rescheduled for the next week.
A simple suggestion of taking aspirin as a first-aid measure in a potential case of a heart attack sent through an SMS on your way to the hospital can help a patient significantly reduce the damage. Remote patient outreach is an important prospect for today’s practices, if not a necessity. It’s really that simple — connect with your patients to know them better, to treat them better, and to make them feel better with minimum interventions. While organizations can still sustain under value-driven contracts without such streamlined patient communication mediums, we cannot keep believing that we would cross that bridge when we come to it.
The road ahead
Consumerism
in healthcare was never a widely-discussed topic until very recently, however,
things are changing and how! Innovating while respecting the mandates in place
should be the road ahead, definitely. The government is supporting new-age
initiatives, federal healthcare agencies are bringing in new policies, and
large payer and provider organizations are exploring ways to maximize patient
satisfaction. Examples set by organizations such as DHCS will act as an ice
breaker for other agencies and organizations wanting to break free to cater to
the unique needs of the 2020s.
By Rik Coder, vice president of public sector, Pexip.
Rik Coder
Today’s healthcare organizations face tremendous pressure to deliver high-quality care and improve patient satisfaction, all while reducing costs. As hospitals adapt to new value-based care models, telehealth can be a great way to improve patient satisfaction and engagement.
In fact, a recent study by Massachusetts General Hospital
found high levels of patient satisfaction with telehealth, with 68 percent of
patients rating virtual visits at 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, and 62 percent
reporting that the quality of virtual video visits was no different from that
of office visits.
The technology
backbone powering telehealth plays a big role in patient satisfaction. It
must be simple and intuitive for patients to join video calls, while meeting
the security and workflow needs of physicians. So, when choosing a platform to
support your telehealth initiative, what factors should you consider?
1. Provide
a great user experience
One of the most important factors in driving
adoption for your telehealth platform is the user experience for both patients
and physicians. The interface of the video application must be intuitive and
easy-to-use, and the service high-quality and reliable. Organizations should
also ensure that the platform provides connectivity to patient home sites for
case management, post-procedure follow-up, and remote monitoring.
2.
Ability to connect with any device, anywhere
Telehealth can break down accessibility
barriers to care, whether those be technology-based or location-based. Patients
should be able to join video consults from the comfort of their own homes using
their mobile device or web browser, and physicians should be able to use the
technologies they are used to, whether those be telehealth carts, office
computers, video conferencing
systems, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts Meet.
With the right connectivity to disperse
locations ranging from hospitals to clinics and rehabilitation centers,
patients can get the coordinated care they need. This also improves the speed
and quality of care as health systems spread across large geographies.
3.
Scalability
As health systems expand, adding new sites and
acquiring new practices, they need the ability to quickly scale to accommodate
increased usage. Each new site also needs the ability to easily connect with
each other for internal collaboration. With the right platform, you can add
video capacity to accommodate times of increased demand in real time, and add
capabilities to meet the changing needs of your organization with no additional
configuration needed.
4.
Flexibility
Each organization is different. Consider the
IT resources and existing infrastructure requirements of your organization to
determine the best deployment method for you (self-hosted versus as-a-service).
Also evaluate how the platform will integrate with existing technologies such
as EMRs and scheduling tools to make workflows as seamless as possible. If your
video platform is clunky or requires additional logins, physicians are less
likely to adopt it into their daily workflows.
5.
Customization
Consumers today expect a consistent experience
across all of their touchpoints with a brand, and when it comes to healthcare,
the patient experience is no different. For instance, will your telehealth
platform extend your organization’s brand and experience from the doctor’s
office to the patient’s home, or introduce a different look and feel? Providing
a seamless experience can increase patient trust and loyalty for your
organization over the long run.
Choosing the right video platform is a big
decision that can ultimately determine the success of your telehealth
initiative. Beyond the fundamental needs for security and regulatory
compliance, select a platform that puts user and physician experience first. With
physician buy-in, you can drive adoption and give your patients the care they need, when they need it.
Technology is advancing at an unbelievably rapid pace and there are new breakthroughs every day for artificial intelligence and big data in multiple industries. They have the potential to completely revolutionize the field of healthcare and some changes are already starting to take place. This article will cover the top startup companies in healthcare that are at the forefront of the AI revolution and what their products and discoveries mean for the medical industry.
Sword Health is the first digital
physical therapist that is powered by AI. The company recognized a need in the
industry because they noticed that there was always a lack of experienced
medical specialists. Even with the number of professionals finishing their
medical training each year, there is an increasing demand for them which cannot
be met. The AI-powered physical therapist created by Sword Health limits the
input of human specialists to elaborating the initial personalized physical
therapy journey for each patient. After this step, the patient does their
regular exercises at home and their motion tracker will let them know if each
exercise was done properly. This saves the patient having to make regular trips
to the hospital for physical therapy and allows the specialists to see more
people quicker.
Prognos’ goal is to completely
eradicate the world of diseases by developing a tool that will identify disease
at the onset. This company, formerly known as Medivo, has an ambitious goal
which is to use AI and data analysis to predict disease at the earliest
possible moment. A tech blogger at Australia2Write, Richard Key, explains why Prognos is so valuable to the medical
industry: “Their database can access 13 billion patient records and then AI is
used to gain actionable information. The registry helps Prognos figure out
which patients are most at risk and develop a plan for treatment that’s
personalized to each individual. It can also identify populations at risk and
look for gaps in existing care.”
Flatiron Health is aimed at the
challenge posed by cancer in the diversity and complexity of the disease. It’s
too difficult for doctors or healthcare organizations to deal with on their own
so the entire industry needs to be used to make any advancement in this field.
Flatiron Health is a company that’s developed an electronic health record (EHR)
to unify all the medical data that exists thus far and pull insights from it in
order to move cancer research forward at a rapid pace.
At its core, Babylon Health is a tool that permits patients to consult human doctors or other medical specialists online, through text or video in real time. As explained by a data analyst at Brit Student, John Hunt, “It also has an AI component which is a chatbot that can assist patients with simpler, more straightforward issues. Its capacity extends to making diagnoses and recommending treatment options.”
The goal of Babylon Health’s
company is to eventually have a completely self-sustainable doctor powered by
AI, so it seems as though the future of healthcare is receiving treatments
without seeing a human doctor at any point.
Arterys’ focus is radiology and
it uses AI to help existing human radiologists. Their oncology AI software is
already approved in the United States by the FDA and it actually assists
radiologists in measuring and tracking tumors in MRIs and CT scans using a
user-friendly, easy browser. The goal with this is to get accurate and quick
cancer diagnoses. The AI-powered tool uses what it’s learned to recognize and
alert to lung and liver lesions and its accuracy has been shown to equal human
specialists.
This is another American startup,
but one whose focus is on female fertility. Modern Fertility is a fertility
hormone test for women to use in the comfort and privacy of their own home. All
they need to do is take a finger-prick test and mail it to the company, and
then they’ll receive a report approved by a physician which tells them more
information about their hormones and a complete fertility profile. It’s
partnered with a medical facility in the United States and was founded by
former Uber executives.
The healthcare industry has long been known for its lengthy processes and difficult paperwork hoops. Much like the federal government, it has lagged behind other industries in updating technology to meet the expectations of modern system users. The sheer antiquity of the administrative work leaves patients feeling frustrated and like they are feeding information into a black box.
Though it has certainly taken a long time, the
healthcare industry is finally beginning to adopt technologies and incorporate
them into patient care. In many facilities, patients are now able to see note
taking in electronic medical records. Some are now even able to sync health
data they have collected on their smart devices with medical information needed
by doctors for certain health screenings.
This process of adapting the technologies
certainly hasn’t been easy. Beyond the time and difficulty of incorporating
tech into a monolithic industry, there are substantial barriers in tech skill
sets in healthcare professionals. The adoption of technology, however, has
become an absolutely necessary means to connecting with patients and staying
relevant in a surprisingly competitive industry.
A New Skill Set
As a healthcare professional, it is imperative
to keep up to date on new procedures and findings related to certain illnesses.
Many doctors, nurses, and physicians assistants spend years learning all of the
basics and training in advanced healthcare practices. This high level of
education is expected from all patients, whether their healthcare visit is a
simple checkup or a complicated procedure. When it comes down to it, healthcare
professionals have a lot of information stuffed up top.
With the advent of technology in the
healthcare system, it has become almost essential for healthcare professionals
to add one more skill set to their repertoire: healthcare tech guru. For some
doctors and nurses who have been in the practice for a long time, the technology
changes can be confusing and difficult to adapt to. Keeping personal health data private in an
electronic format that is easily shared can be especially challenging.
Some technologies such as telemedicine or
patient-centered healthcare have completely changed the way healthcare is
expected to be provided. Many recent medical field graduates are being taught different skills that will help
them to provide care more effectively in a more tech-based health setting. For
instance, they may be taught how to work alongside a healthcare robot, how to
communicate with patients effective without seeing them in person, or how to
use information collected on smart devices.
Boosting Engagement
Technology has also given another person new
healthcare tools — the patient. Patients have a far greater ability than ever
before to contribute to and be active in collecting their own healthcare data.
This engagement can be a blessing and a curse. It gives patients the ability to
track their own information and identify possible concerns, but it can also
encourage some to write off going to the doctor completely.
The biggest way this technology has changed
the jobs of healthcare professionals is by giving them a bigger window into the
day-to-day lives and activities of their patients. Now more than ever before,
doctors have the ability to confirm whether or not patients are following
health suggestions and can document changes, adjust treatment, and coordinate care
accordingly. Because of this, they are likely to need to learn how to better
frame patient conversations to accurately convey the urgency and importance of
their prescriptions.
On the flip side, technology also gives the
patient a greater window into the black box that is their medical information.
Electronic medical records have made it relatively simple to compile all
medical information about one person and share it with other healthcare professionals or the patient.
This means that patients have a greater knowledge base and more control over
what happens to their medical information.
Staying Relevant
Finally, as with most businesses — and
healthcare is certainly a business — the adoption of technology is a critical
piece of staying relevant. Successfully making the conversion to a technologically savvy doctor’s
office can mean the difference between expanding to serve more
patients or falling behind the rest of the industry. It is something that
health administrators are certainly thinking about, even if the doctors aren’t.
More so than in previous decades, patients are
expecting that doctors are able to meet their schedules. A digital and
tech-savvy clinic can help make that happen. At this point, the vast majority
of potential patients are going online to research doctors and facilities prior to
making appointments — which they also greatly prefer to make online.
Perhaps the most important means of making sure the transition to a digital healthcare environment is successful is helping to train doctors and nurses to understand the technology they are going to be using. A greater understanding is critical to accepting and even promoting the changes as positive ones. If the majority of the office is struggling with understanding the purpose and need of going digital, it is going to be difficult to make the transition stick.
Make no mistake, technology is rapidly
changing the healthcare world. This means many healthcare professionals are
working hard to develop the necessary skills to successfully integrate
technology into their practices. Doing so can help ensure they are both getting
and giving out the most information to patients, which is better for overall
health outcomes.
By B.J. Boyle, vice president and general manager of post-acute insights, PointClickCare.
B.J. Boyle
As every nurse, physician,
clinical case manager, and healthcare IT professional knows well, we have
passed the stage in which locking up patient data is an effective care
practice. In fact, ineffective data siloing can slow down operations and can
drastically and negatively impact patient care, as well as put unnecessary
strain on an already overtaxed workforce. In short, data silos are a great
barrier to realizing a fully
implemented state of interoperability.
We must unlock — and
importantly, share — critical health data to improve the quality of
patients’ care throughout their medical journey. Data sharing will
improve efficiencies in our nation’s health facilities by reducing
readmissions, reducing negative drug interactions, and improving care to
decrease patient length-of-stay, to name a few. Acute providers know that
reducing readmissions is critical in a value-based payment environment because
the penalties can be detrimental to the financial health of the facility.
That makes the need to share data quickly and efficiently more
pressing than ever. Only by embracing technological innovations and sharing
data can care providers see a holistic view of the patient — from potential
injuries and emotional challenges to drug interactions and comorbidities.
That’s not to say that keeping
up with demand while offering high-quality patient care will be an easy task.
But we know it certainly isn’t possible with the way things are.
Further, by accessing data about previous patient outcomes, case
managers can help patients and their families determine the right treatment
facility for them, increasing the effectiveness of referrals and increasing the
chances that your facility will become the preferred provider. When patients
are matched with the right facility for their specific needs the first time,
their recovery time and health outcomes will improve. That’s good for everyone:
decreasing costs and increasing hospital ratings by reducing readmissions is a
win-win.
More confident care
Data that has been removed from silos and integrated into a
cohesive and actionable digital chart allows providers to follow their
patient’s journey post-discharge, improving the speed and quality of
information exchange with skilled nursing and acute care facilities, which
leads to more confident care.
Modern EHR technologies and cloud-based solutions can finally make
interoperability possible and can increase efficiency so providers can stop
waiting by the fax machine and instead get back to doing what is most
important: helping patients heal.
Patient discharges, for example, can be extraordinarily labor-intensive and are further complicated when they are transferred to a post-acute care provider. As a result of the inherent complexities, hefty paperwork and need for seamless transitions, manual processes, a lack of transparency and data silos can cause significant negative impacts on patient health and frustration for families and providers alike.
The cloud-based technology we need already exists to assist with such paperwork, cutting down discharge time and allowing providers to get back to the myriad of other tasks awaiting them. Faster discharges mean more free hospital beds, helping with overall efficiency and an improved bottom line.
More information sharing between clinics also means patients can make informed decisions about their own health. Both patients and physicians or case managers will have a full picture of both acute and chronic issues while referrals can be made more effectively based on past results of patients with similar conditions.
When you think about it, using integrated technology to share success rates is a no-brainer. People research their meals on Yelp before going to dinner, or read reviews on a pair of shoes before buying them, so why shouldn’t patients be equally as informed about something as important as their health in real-time?
Data sharing can also effectively eliminate issues like drug or
medication problems. Researchers estimate that nearly half of all seniors between the ages of 70 to 79 take five
medications a day. A patient might be given his or her medication twice—or perhaps
not at all—because their care information is siloed between facilities. It’s a
problem that can easily be solved.
We know that outdated, labor-intensive processes that involve manually transmitting data to separate servers doesn’t make sense in a cloud-based world, especially when it comes to solving a crisis we know is coming. While a piecemeal data strategy might have worked in the past, we can’t afford to be less than buttoned up now or in the future.
With the anticipated increase in demand for skilled nursing and acute care services, innovative and integrated data systems are critical. Increased interoperability means patients and providers can make informed decisions, quality care is improved, and paperwork-heavy tasks are simplified, improving hospital and clinic efficiency and making life easier whether we’re the patient, caregiver, or provider.
We already live in a data-driven world, but it’s up to us to
embrace a better way to take care of our patients’ health information now and
in the future.
Rochester
RHIO has released its inaugural population health study—the Community Health
Indicators Report—based on the analysis clinical data points from more
than 600,000 screenings. The report provides a glimpse into residents’
well-being across New York State’s Greater Finger Lakes region, for which Rochester
RHIO is the secure electronic health information exchange (HIE).
The report was made possible, in part,
through Rochester RHIO’s implementation of Stella Technology’s Prism, a big data analytics platform
that makes best of class advances in agile analytics, and optimizes them for
specific use cases, including large scale population health analysis.
Four
key health measures were assessed using full-year 2017 anonymized data,
including Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, diabetes risk (HbA1C) and smoking
status. While the report is intended to serve as a benchmark for the
community, it can also be used for incorporation by regional leaders in their
own health programs.
“The
Community Health Indicators Report is a first-of-its-kind report and a rich
resource for public analysis and planning,” said Jill Eisenstein, president and
CEO, Rochester RHIO. “Population health data is often based on health insurance
claims data or self-reporting. Now we have actual clinical inputs that help us
better understand our community and can set the stage for health improvement
concepts and programs in the years to come.”
“We
are thrilled that Rochester RHIO was able to achieve this breakthrough and
derive actionable insights from the clinical data they have worked so hard to
gather over the years,” said Lalo Valdez, president and CEO of Stella
Technology. “In times of an ever-shifting healthcare landscape, Stella Prism,
with its unparalleled scalability and flexibility, allows healthcare
organizations to not only find key insights from their data today, but also
harness the power of that rich data set to futureproof their business.
Rochester RHIO and Stella teams worked hand-in-hand to produce this first of
many reports. We look forward to continued collaboration with Rochester RHIO
and other HIE initiatives to identify additional population health insights and
opportunities in the future.”
A
report summary is now available at rochesterrhio.org
or by direct PDF download at bit.ly/chirhio2017, with a full data release anticipated
for later this summer. Rochester RHIO also plans to publish 2018 data, using
Stella Prism to compare year-to-year data that will show the evolution of
residents’ health.
