Few would argue that the healthcare industry universally supports coordinated care and population management – in theory. But transforming that vision into reality has been virtually impossible to achieve.
The status quo is about to change, and in a big way, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). With reimbursement soon to be tied to disease management, providers of all sizes and specialties are highly motivated and gearing up to adopt the systems and processes necessary to comply with impending regulations.
In their rush, however, providers must guard against short-sightedness. To achieve genuine care coordination, and therefore improve patient outcomes and satisfaction (not to mention earn incentive dollars), they must evaluate and select technology solutions that meet not only the most pressing requirements, but that will prepare them for the next wave of change.
Providers that are just beginning their technology search need to recognize that compliance is a two-step process: First, they must adopt an electronic health record (EHR) that will allow them to capture and analyze patient information. But that isn’t enough. Beyond the EHR, they should be looking at interoperability options that will support sharing and exchanging data – from specialist reports, to discharge summaries, to imaging studies – activities that are key to care coordination and population management.
To this end, many progressive provider organizations are adopting forward-looking strategies. Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, for example, eschewed the concept of a monolithic EHR system to bridge its ambulatory and acute settings. Instead, it invested in technology that would serve each environment optimally and – in order to fully support data sharing throughout the enterprise – concurrently selected a semantic interoperability platform. This approach allows any of Northwest’s legacy systems, or technologies it may adopt in the future, not only to share information, but to truly understand and make use of the incoming data without altering the original “meaning” of that information – even if it was created or stored in a different format or nomenclature.
Vendors are likewise embracing the concept that the “rules of the game” are different now than just a few years ago. Unprecedented partnerships and alliances are being created to support the needs of provider organizations. Allscripts and dbMotion, for instance, have joined forces to help Community Memorial Health System in Ventura, California, advance its coordinated care agenda by facilitating communication and collaboration among healthcare stakeholders.
Beyond these, there are several additional factors and trends savvy organizations need to consider and take advantage of:
- Connectivity and collaboration will only grow more important. This makes it vital to implement open technology systems for maximum functionality, usability and extensibility.
- Patient access to health information via social media channels is rising at a torrid pace – introducing an invaluable opportunity for providers to include patients as critical members of the care team.
As Bob Dylan once sang, “the times, they are a-changin'” – these days, at head-spinning speeds. But with insightful leadership and smart technology strategies in place, healthcare organizations will no doubt find it possible to keep up and even anticipate the next innovations designed to improve care and control costs.
Peter A. McClennen is President, North America for dbMotion.
