While catching a viewing of Insurgent with my teenage daughter this weekend, I had the opportunity to take in the latest advertisements playing on the big screen. One fully branded commercial represented the local hospital and the promise that a patient could gain access to all of his or her health records by way of a personalized login. It’s data management in the healthcare industry and today, it’s big business.
The opportunity in this space is not just that patients want access to information, it’s also that healthcare organizations are under pressure to deliver better care. If they can get patients involved in the management of this care, they’re much more likely to keep them out of the hospital and leading healthy lives. In accordance with the Affordable Care Act, that means lowering readmissions and investing in long-term solutions for healthy living.
According to a recent Health Data Management piece, this healthy living is heavily reliant on the patient-centered medical home. The medical home emphasizes care coordination, prevention and careful management of chronic illnesses as a way of keeping patients well instead of simply responding when they are sick. As such, the national trend is focused on making the medical home the norm as healthcare agencies aim for lower costs and improved quality. To do so, however, these organizations need access to the right infrastructure and proper data management.
With inspiration from Denmark, the medical home is one in which primary care physicians, care practitioners and care managers all work together in the coordination of quality care, especially for chronically ill patients who tend to drive up costs. Advanced IT capabilities lend considerable assistance and value in the medical home as participants need to track activity, preventative care and treatment plans for sharing across multiple providers.
While it’s always a challenge to compare opportunities in the U.S. with successes that are happening abroad, there is opportunity for the medical home here and the concept is catching on. According to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), nearly 21 million U.S. patients are being served through a medical home model. This number is an increase from just five million in 2009. Medical home pilots are underway in 44 states and medical home incentive payment programs increased from 26 to 114 in the same time frame.
The demand for a new approach to medical care is alive and well, and its success is based largely on the right approach to data management. Yes, the industry has to abide by HIPAA, but even more importantly, it has to serve the needs of patients, healthcare agencies, physicians and other users throughout the field. With the right system and controls in place, better healthcare is possible and probable.