Health Affairs recently published a study showing that the Veterans Administration’s (VA’s) investment in electronic health records and other health information technology yielded a whopping $3.09 billion in cumulative benefits and improved preventive care. Savings reportedly stemmed from reduced workloads, avoidance of unnecessary tests and hospitalizations, and freed workspace.
The study’s authors note that the VA has the advantage of a unique, integrated structure that is hard to match in the private sector. However, integrated delivery networks (IDNs) such as Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain Healthcare have achieved similar success integrating information technology systems, clinicians and patients to improve the cost and quality of care – which is why healthcare spending per capita in California and Utah have been consistently lower than in other states. IDNs deliver highly coordinated, personalized care – from proactive outreach to high-risk patient populations with targeted education, tools and support, to medication therapy management and other programs to manage chronic conditions and promote wellness. The real issue is how to replicate such success outside of a single- or common-ownership structure.
The question remains: Is it possible to replicate this level of success throughout an industry that is most definitely not characterized by common ownership or uniformity of health IT system adoption? To address this diversity, we can conceptualize the creation of virtual care teams that collaborate and coordinate care regardless of bricks-and-mortar affiliation or differences in IT systems already in place. Advances in technology are making virtual care team networks a reality today, enabling hospitals, primary care physicians, specialists, payers, labs, imaging centers and others – that are affiliated from a patient perspective but not under common ownership – to coordinate care in a manner similar to both the VA and IDNs.
Coined Health 4.0, this virtual, innovative and scalable approach to care delivery enables independent organizations to connect information, services and people across a community through a private, secure social network. This network makes it possible for care teams – encompassing all providers caring for a particular patient – to coordinate care in a patient-centered, virtual environment by eliminating the boundaries and silos of health information and facilitating workflow. Patient information is accessible to any authorized care team provider, and care team members are proactively alerted about care provided to their patient by any provider – yielding a 360-degree view of the patient’s health.
The virtual care team concept is delivering real results. A recent customer study by Medicity found that physician practices and hospitals utilizing such a connectivity platform experienced savings that are similar to those reported for the VA, including:
- Data exchange between four hospitals and 11 clinics/practices could save approximately $1.2M annually
- Practices/clinics with an EHR saved more than $134,000 per year; practices/clinics without an EHR still saved $44,000 annually
- Streamlining workflow processes and eliminating courier fees saved four hospitals about $600,000
It is time to put innovative and effective technology solutions to work to advance our highly variable and complex healthcare environment to the nation’s vision state of collaborative and quality care.
BIO:
James Lassetter, MD, co-founded and has been the chairman and CEO of Medicity since its inception in 2000. He has grown Medicity to become the largest U.S, technology solution provider for the health information exchange (HIE) market.
