Caring for Chronic Conditions? Two Ways Population Health Management Solutions Can Drive Success

With the increasing prevalence of shared-risk payment models, providers for patients with chronic conditions are dealing with ongoing changes to the way they are measured and reimbursed for services.

As providers take on more and more risk in new models of care, it is critical to have a full view of specific risks for each patient, particularly for providers managing chronic conditions. Population health management technology can help organizations efficiently use their data to drive the optimal care plan for each patient, improving outcomes and reducing the cost of care. 

Just as the electronic health record (EHR) is the core technology enabling providers to document care, a strong data-driven, population health management solution is the key to aggregating patient data from across the care continuum. Organizations can use population health management solutions to stratify risk across their population and create a care plan for each patient that delivers the right care at the right time at the right venue.

Here are two ways population health management solutions can drive success at your organization.  

1. Improve care quality

Population health management technology can do more than stratify patients by risk to identify the most appropriate course of action. It can help staff more efficiently manage care for each patient by automating staff and task assignments. When a patient has a potential gap in care or requires an intervention, this type of technology can immediately assign an intervention and follow up. For example, staff can be assigned to immediately follow up with patients who miss their follow-up visit with a physician after being discharged from a hospital. Care managers can receive alerts whenever patients present at an Emergency Department (ED), enabling immediate follow-up. Efficiently managing care through technology enables better adherence to care plans and ultimately better care for patients.

2. Reduce cost of care

Patients with chronic conditions are often at increased risks for hospital readmissions and ED visits. These are not just potential indicators of a gap in care, but also costly, particularly in a shared-risk model.

By using a population health management technology solution, organizations can aggregate data on their patients from their own EHR as well as the rest of the healthcare continuum. That data can be used to stratify risks for each patient and set the best care plan for each patient. Providers can manage the risks to each patient by delivering the right care at the right time at the right venue, reducing preventable ED visits and hospital readmissions thereby reducing costly episodes of care.

As a provider of care for patients with chronic conditions, you deliver care to the most vulnerable members of our communities. A population health solution can complement your EHR and put your data to work, enabling improved care quality and cost of care.

To learn more about our population health management solutions, click here.