In this guest post, Judy Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center, shares the innovative ways her teams are leveraging technology to support improvements in care transitions. Tucson Medical Center is also part of Arizona Connected Care, which was recently selected to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program) Accountable Care Organization (ACO), sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Every hospital executive and clinician today is working to effectively manage what we call the “white space” – the place where patients exist between episodes of care, after a doctor’s appointment, surgery or procedure and before their next touch point or follow up. While it’s challenging to connect with patients once they leave the hospital and are out of our control, doing so is critical to both increasing quality of care and controlling healthcare costs. Mastering the “white space” plays a key role in helping patients stay on the road to recovery and ultimately reduce hospital readmissions.
