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This week’s guest post comes from Martin Brown, M.D., FACEP, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Va.. A key player in MEDS-ED Link, a grant funded project recently instituted by the Northern Virginia Regional Health Information Organization (NoVaRHIO), Dr. Brown discusses the impact of health information technology on patients in his facility.
We’re all aware that the evolution of healthcare technology is ultimately driven by a desire and need to improve patient care and operational efficiencies. However, many hospitals and clinicians today feel like they’re swimming in a sea of regulations, deadlines, implementations and go-lives. The plus side is that more and more frequently, we’re able to derive some improvements, motivation and gratification from the instances where access and sharing of clinical data across a healthcare community clearly makes an immediate difference in a patient’s treatment.
This week’s guest post comes from Justin Chang, M.D., chief of emergency services, Kaiser Permanente, Colorado, and medical director, Exempla St. Joseph Hospital Emergency Department. A proponent of collaboration and enhanced coordination of care, Dr. Chang makes the case for a new model of healthcare delivery as defined March 31 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in its proposed ruling on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
I think we can all agree — physician, payer, provider, patient, etc. — that the ultimate goal of regulations and reform should be to improve the delivery of healthcare, lowering costs and ultimately, making patients healthier and more satisfied. Coupled with driving toward the results defined by CMS, this requires some fairly significant changes in how healthcare providers operate — changes which may rightfully make some providers uneasy. But what many of us may not realize is that hospitals, physicians and payers across the country are already becoming advocates for the types of changes ACOs will require, supporting a shift away from the fee-for-service and silo-type models, even before the regulations go into effect.
Football season may be over for the year. But for payers, the idea that “as goes the quarterback so goes the team” has never resonated as loudly as it does now — and will in the future — in the new world of Sustainable Health Communities.
Historically, payers have had an important, yet somewhat fundamental role: to select and manage risk, to negotiate favorable provider contracts, ensure its network is comprehensive, design appropriate benefit plans, manage care and provide appropriate customer service. Now, as we enter the era of Sustainable Health Communities, payers take on a new and even more critical function as the enabler — the head coach of the team where the primary care physician (PCP) is the “quarterback” in the local health care delivery system.
This week, Dr. Shari Medina – Senior Director of Clinical Informatics at Picis, Inc. – discusses the evolving role of physicians within Sustainable Health Communities.
It’s no secret that healthcare’s inevitable move toward sustainable health communities (SHC) has many physicians feeling a bit…nervous. Admittedly, most physicians are creatures of habit who fiercely defend their individual approach to patient care, focus on cures not cost, and dread the concept of “cookbook medicine.” And under the SHC model, physicians are going to, without a doubt, be expected to move out of their comfort zones. But while SHCs will put new pressures on physicians to observe and adhere to evidence-based best practices, they will also allow physicians to preserve and deeply embrace the “art of medicine,” as well as enhance physicians’ skills and help improve outcomes by enabling them to spend more quality time with patients.
It’s not news to most that with increasing regulations, an aging population, rising healthcare costs and dwindling numbers of nurses and certain medical specialists, U.S. hospitals are finding themselves scrambling to do more with less. Most hospitals today are focused on trying to meet Meaningful Use requirements, to avoid penalties and secure financial incentives. But many are missing the bigger, longer term picture of this country’s financial situation: how half a trillion (or more) in Medicare cuts over the next 10 years will impact the industry.
Pam Matthews, RN, MBA, CPHIMS, FHIMSS
Pam Matthews, RN, MBA, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, serves as the Senior Director of Regional Affairs at HIMSS, a cause-based, not-for-profit organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. We are pleased to introduce her as this week’s guest blogger on Healthcare-Exchange.
We can all agree that great strides are taking place today to enable Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), as evidenced by the great work being done across the country at both the state and regional levels. For example, projects in Northern Virginia and Nebraska have taken off and are already providing real value to all participating constituencies.
At this year’s Picis Exchange meeting in Miami, FL, I had a chance to sit down with Tommy G. Thompson, whose resume will take up half of this blog post – former secretary of Health & Human Services, four-term governor of Wisconsin, member of Picis’ board of directors and a personal friend and resource – to talk about where today’s healthcare system is headed.
The most compelling part of our discussion was his take on President Obama’s approach to healthcare reform and his direct advice on next steps.
Let us know if you agree or disagree with his advice – and what yours might be? And stay tuned for more from our discussion in the weeks ahead!
- Todd Cozzens
I don’t know about you, but I was thrilled to hear about today’s launch of MEDS-ED Link, a project of the Northern Virginia Regional Health Information Organization (NoVaRHIO) in conjunction with Inova Health System and GE Healthcare.
In a move that caught many by surprise, the recently-installed coalition government of Britain has proposed a radical reorganization of the National Health Service (NHS). The goals of the reorganization are to decentralize the control of the NHS budget, dismantle layers of bureaucracy, empower patients, and realize some £20 billion in savings through increased efficiency. All of this is set against a backdrop that calls for doing more with less – improving outcomes, ensuring high quality care and patient safety and giving providers and hospitals more autonomy while requiring more accountability. The UK, like much of Europe, is looking at ways to restructure budgets and social programs, in an attempt to reduce deficit spending and overall debt. And while the original goals of healthcare reform in the US included cost control, we on this side of the Atlantic did not take the courageous steps necessary to “bend the curve” on health care costs.
As an insider in healthcare for more than 20 years, today is an exciting day for me. Picis, the company I co-founded with Liz Popovich and helped grow into an international software company with 700 employees, is being acquired by Ingenix, a leading HIT, consulting and services company with nearly 6,000 hospital clients around the world.
This is a classic “win-win-win” situation that will benefit us, Ingenix, and all our customers and prospects. With all that is going on in healthcare industry today, I can tell you from the heart that the timing was perfect for this transaction, and this is truly the best possible home for Picis in which to grow and prosper.
