Client News Coverage

Health plans, accountable care organizations (ACOs), medical homes, and other risk-bearing entities are at a critical juncture: they must achieve “value” at a time when healthcare is facing enormous challenges.

Rising healthcare prices, an aging population, and a rapid increase in costly complex and chronic diseases are driving up healthcare expenditures. Adopting value-based care is key to managing these expenditures as effective value-based strategies support higher quality care, lower costs, and a better patient experience.

Healthcare IT Today»

The evolution of today’s care model from the traditional episodic/disease or “sick” care model to one of more sustainable value-based wellness, continues. The industry is currently building on the success of earlier strategies aimed at chronic disease management, taking performance to the next level by advancing wellness models to focus on early intervention to minimize the potential for disease onset.

AllNurses»

Industry discussions related to social determinants of health (SDoH) have moved to center stage as health care stakeholders recognize the impact these nonclinical factors have on clinical outcomes and costs. SDoH are providing new insights into environmental influences that can hinder or promote a patient’s ability to follow through with care plans and make healthful lifestyle choices. 

ForTheRecord»

Data shared across an organization create a common language that informs decisions and supports organizational goals.

This builds alignment across business activities, catalyzes collaboration and enhances agility in response to competition and changing market dynamics—making the organization smarter, more innovative and more purposeful in its approach.

For health plans, these capabilities are particularly important in increasingly competitive Medicare Advantage (MA) markets, where consumers choose their insurance providers like they choose their medical providers. Add the move toward value-based reimbursement, and it becomes clear that the future belongs to organizations that power decisions with data-driven insights.

FierceHealthcare»

Part One of this two-part series on patient identity management best practices looked at strategies for mitigating errors during data conversion. In Part Two, we examine the factors that are critical to successfully achieving clinical data interoperability.

While the debate underway at the national level focuses on a national patient identifier and what it will take to achieve nationwide interoperability, closer to home healthcare organizations need to keep accurate patient identity and data exchange within their own walls at the forefront.

Healthcare Business Today»

An often-overlooked aspect of merger, acquisition or affiliation arrangements between healthcare organizations is the need to combine master patient index (MPI) databases. When improperly managed, data conversions can have serious short and long-term implications for impacted organizations and their patients.

Healthcare Buisness Today»

Thrive Behavioral Sciences, a leading provider of behavioral health services to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, has launched its Furry Palz Program at select Avante Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers across Central Florida.

Furry Palz provides dementia patients a cuddly robot puppy or kitten that simulates a breathing pet and can rest on the patient’s lap.

McKnight's Longterm Care News»

In this edition of Harlow On Healthcare, Mirabelle Cabiling, VP – Clinical Operations of VirtualHealth (@virtualhealth_), discusses HELIOS, her company’s communications hub for care managers to coordinate diverse care teams. The platform accommodates multiple types of data regarding medical issues and social determinants of health and enables improved communications with patients. The workflow is designed to optimize quality care delivery.

HealthBlawg»

The past decade has ushered in notable changes to the way nurses care for patients. In tandem with increased clinical responsibility to address higher acuity patients, today’s nurses are on the frontlines of the industry’s shift from “sick care” to sustainable wellness models. It’s an evolution that demands they move outside the four walls of the traditional acute care centers and into the community to deliver care to all, ensuring the underserved and most vulnerable populations have access to quality, proactive healthcare as well.

Outsourcing is far from a foreign concept to health information management (HIM) leaders who have long relied on vendor organizations to reduce costs associated with transcription, coding and release of information (ROI). Today, forward-thinking HIM directors are looking toward outsourcing to help maintain the integrity of their master patient index (MPI) systems by significantly reducing or even eliminating duplicate and overlay task backlogs.

As the delivery of healthcare transforms from disease-based episodic care to patient and population health-centric models of wellness care, nurses are facing new pressures and priorities to deliver high quality, safer and more consistent care both at bedside and in the community. That’s based on a recent survey by Wolters Kluwer, Health in which nearly all nurse respondents indicated that more access to information that drives evidence-based decisions at the point of care would result in a significant improvement in patient outcomes.

Unsustainable healthcare costs are driving seismic changes to the way payers do business. All healthcare stakeholders face significant pressure within the framework of value-based care to cut costs while simultaneously improving clinical outcomes and populations health. Consequently, forward-looking operational and clinical leaders recognize that they must invest in innovative approaches and technology such as automation, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to stay relevant and competitive in a dynamic marketplace.

Sepsis affects 1.5 million people in the U.S. annually, and it is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, attributing over $20 billion in annual hospital fees. As hospitals and health systems focus on this deadly and preventable condition during Sepsis Awareness Month, it’s important to reflect on the state of the industry and how the nation is performing following increased regulatory attention in recent years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) success stories are beginning to flood the health care industry as stakeholders attempt to accelerate labor-intensive processes and realize the promise of advanced technology. Data are central to these initiatives, yet health care organizations are all too familiar with the challenges associated with getting maximum value from the rapidly expanding repositories of information now housed in EHRs and other clinical systems.

For The Record»

Sepsis is one of the leading causes of hospital mortality, present in more than half of the hospital deaths in the U.S. It is also one of the costliest diagnoses in the U.S. with a healthcare spend of over $20 billion dollars annually (Rhee, et al., 2017).