February 02, 2012
By: Steve Schelhammer
Automation tools for population health management will become more important than ever in 2012 as a growing number of healthcare providers begins to take responsibility for the cost and quality of care. Some organizations will further integrate their information systems and automate their care-coordination processes to prepare for the assumption of financial risk. And more and more providers will focus on the patient-centered medical home (PCMH), which can produce short-term financial and clinical benefits while paving the way for the formation of accountable care organizations (ACOs). ... Read more
January 21, 2012
By: Dr. Richard Hodach
As a veteran of the disease management industry, and most recently, spending several years assisting provider organizations to manage their patient populations, I fully appreciate the problems inherent in traditional employer-based and health plan-sponsored disease management programs. However, like Al Lewis, I also disagree with the statement that disease management is dead. Although some models have failed in the past, disease management models continue to evolve and are being transformed and incorporated into new physician-led population health models such as the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Further, as health systems assume more financial risk and move towards Accountable Care Organizations, they will take on responsibility for managing entire populations and will be using population health tools and services that evolved from the original disease management principles and fundamentals. ... Read more
December 09, 2011
By: Jerry Green
A Value Stream is an end-to-end process that flows horizontally through an organization in order to provide value to a client, patient or customer. Many organizations map processes vertically rather than horizontally focusing on a department over the entity that flows through the entire organization. In a horizontal process design, however, because the entity is what is mapped and not a facility or department, handoffs can be visualized and downstream affects identified. ... Read more
November 11, 2011
By: Marina Pascali
Readmissions are a major problem in U.S. healthcare. Nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from the hospital returns there within 30 days, and between 50 percent and 75 percent of those readmissions are considered preventable. Medicare pays about $17 billion annually for 2.5 million rehospitalizations of its beneficiaries, and other payers spend roughly the same amount every year for all readmissions of non-Medicare patients.
The immediate cause of a readmission is usually a rapid deterioration in the patient's condition, related to the patient's primary diagnosis and/or comorbidities. But in a broader sense, it can be attributed to systemic failures that often begin in the hospital and continue in the fragmented healthcare settings that patients move through after discharge. ... Read more
October 27, 2011
By: Dr. Richard Hodach
Until recently, hospitals may have taken the attitude that their responsibility for care ended when the patient was discharged. While health systems have used a variety of techniques to reduce readmissions, they have experienced mixed results. But new government incentives, plus a rising awareness of the need to improve patient safety, are placing an increased emphasis on discharge planning and post-acute care. ... Read more