For population health to gain a firm footing, healthcare organizations must start with conversations on the ground level.
“It’s the people who will make the change,” said Jerry Sobolik, senior business analyst at the Mayo Clinic.
Sobolik leads a team at Mayo working on standardization methods for Mayo’s three electronic health record systems, creating definitions and reports around data elements.
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Since staff members were initially reluctant, Mayo’s team interviewed employees to uncover their concerns and needs. Each EHR has its own terms and definitions, for instance, and the idea is to get all of the parties on the same page.
To achieve enough buy-in and standardization of processes, in fact, Sobolik and his team engaged the outliers who did not yet see the benefit to population health management.
“We learned about their practices,” he explained. “So the system can be designed to fit their needs.”
Some even became population health proponents.
When staff members fully understand how data is used and the way the pieces move within a system, they begin to understand the importance of EHRs – and to grasp differing terms in the various systems.
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“We’ve had a really good buy into standardization,” he said. “But we can’t wait for perfection. We want to get the data into the practices, to see what we need to improve upon in terms of coding and data.”
Sobolik will deliver a presentation titled, “The Pop Health Imperative: A Systemic Approach to Value” at HIMSS16 on March 2, 2016, from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. in Palazzo 1 at the Sands Expo Convention Center. HIMSS16 runs from Feb. 29-Mar. 4 in Las Vegas.
Twitter: @JessiefDavis
This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.
