We are in an age when data matters more than ever. It affects how much physicians earn, how much hospitals make (or lose) and whether treatment plans evolve based on efficacy.
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are under increasing pressure to make the data work out. Whether in managing EHRs/EMRs, doing analysis of big data, working with the Medicare Shared Savings program, or handling fee-for-performance models, hospitals must be more sophisticated than ever before.
It is an almost impossible challenge for hospital administrators to manage all of these intricacies and also keep the common sense and fundamentals of "good medicine" alive. So we were inspired by some recent comments by Joel Vengco, vice president and CIO of Baystate Health in Massachusetts.
To give you a sense, Baystate Health is huge. It is a six-hospital health system with 80 medical groups, serving 900,000 patients across four counties.
And yet - when asked what the biggest challenge for Baystate Health as an ACO is, Mr. Vengco said:
"The first big hurdle is just really creating the necessary environment for collaboration across the continuum of care and the region... Everyone is responsible for that patient population... So it’s really back to the basics of collaboration, which is in many ways a fundamental principle, but is also sophisticated and complex with regard to an operation like that."
This is definitely representative of our experience with hospitals that use ClickCare -- and those that don't. There is a lot of complex analysis that happens, but ultimately, success in an ACO setting comes down to excellent care coordination, superb healthcare collaboration, and healthcare providers across the continuum of care.
It's not easy work, but there are tools (like some telemedicine platforms) that can help. It's work that's done person by person, day by day.
For our best advice on creating that environment for healthcare collaboration, get our free Quick Guide:
Photo of Baystate Medical Center used under Creative Commons rights from orlandosworld on Flickr