Tuesday, October 6, 2015

A Tablet That Saves Lives and Reduces Hospital Re-admission Cost and Penalties.


A computer tablet “GIVEN” at the time of discharge to primary care patients would reduce re-admissions costs and penalties and save a life or two.  Why are we not doing this? The cost of tablets has fallen to such a low cost range – sub $100. - and the software is here and ready to facilitate doing it, such that a ‘discharge tablet’ will and needs to become a standard component to the primary care practice of discharge and transition care management.

Today, the hospital discharge experience remains a ‘blurred flurry’ of an experience for most patients. Once wheeled out the door, trying to recall and reflect as to what was said, what you are supposed to do or not do and the how and when and with what medications can be highly stressful for the patient and post discharge caregivers, family members or guardians. Discharge time is not the ideal time for a speedy lecture that contains and is jammed full of life critical information and terms and data that are terribly unfamiliar.

Of course there are many drivers to re-admissions. One set are those conditions that subsequently arise are medically driven chronic conditions. The other set are those that are manageable by patients and care givers. Some major examples are:

Failure to understand the post discharge care plan – originally delivered by someone who thinks you should understand or conveyed via a 19 page 8 pt. type set document that details all the horrific possibilities. What did he or she say I was supposed to do?

Failure to use prescribed medications correctly – if at all. Simply being confused on which pill to take first and when and or why.

Failure to monitor health vitals indicators – blood pressure, weight, oxygen levels etc.

Improper wound condition awareness and care – is this wound healing properly?

Failure to communicate condition changing issues in a timely manner such as medication effects, breathing, sleep, balance, hearing etc.

Providing a specialized discharge tablet with a guiding conditions checklist and a history of care activity events and trending conditions can significantly and positively impact these issues and more. A ‘one touch’ always ready connection to the exact information when a patient needs it and providing active monitoring to care givers via a specialized tablet will go a long way to reducing re-admissions. Less than $100. per patient even if given away and not charged for or returned seems like an ROI for everyone involved and worth securing….and saving a life or two along the way is not a bad outcome to strive for with today’s technology enabled health care.

If you would like to discuss deploying a discharge tablet contact me at www.chartacares.com or at mike@chartacloud.com. I’d be happy to discuss the potential and the possibilities of a discharge tablet for your patients and care organization.

 

 

 

 

Monday, October 5, 2015

STAT! The Othe Side of the Hopital Needs Oxygen



With so much news, advertising, promotion and discussion revolving around HIPAA IT, “meaningful use”, EMR, security breaches and a seemingly un-ending list of other related Health IT security and compliance subjects, it is easy to lose sight of the fact there is still a business to run. All this noise can easily impact and distract IT decisions or derail IT initiatives that can improve how a hospital or home care business can and should be operated in this day and age. What I call the ‘other side of the hospital’ is a back office that needs to run and that has significantly real business process automation needs.

It seems that everyone has become so HIPAA IT and EMR centric that sustaining attention on the business side has been relegated to a remote and distant second tier. Almost with a, “Oh yeah, there is that to get to too” attitude. There are clearly needs outside of EMR centric systems. A/P, H/R, workflow processing, business document management, contract management, project management are still central requirements of any well run health care business. As I also work with non-hospital or home care businesses I see firsthand the strides that those businesses are making in advancing their business processes into the digital age with forms automation, mobility and workflow processing, A/P and H/R on-boarding and fluent system integrations for example.

Driving a health care business solely from an EMR centric focus creates severe debilitations on efficiency and profitability. While an EMR initiatives are indeed critical and necessary in health care services, those systems and that as a strategy simply does not address enterprise wide business operational needs. There is a lot more that needs to go on in a health care business than automating patient records. I see real dangers ahead if health care IT doesn’t begin a re-focus attention and investments on the ‘other side of the hospital’.

There are a significant number of forms that surround health care business management that EMR systems do not address. There are a significant numbers of A/P invoices that need approval and processing. There is the ever constant on-boarding of staff in H/R. There are numerous sometimes hundreds of contracts and business associate agreements that need management. EMR systems do not address those areas yet, somehow, we are being led to think they might, can or will. That’s not happening.

Today’s advances in business process management technologies out classes what I have seen in EMR. Hospital IT leaders and home care business operators would do well to take a pause and revisit the IT agenda on the other side of the hospital or their home care business. If you haven’t looked recently, today’s business process technologies have exponentially advanced the ‘state-of-the-art’. Bringing the other side of the hospital into the digital age can provide a dramatic boost to profitability. What is available in business process automation today is fast to achieve, unbelievably easy to do and extremely cost efficient. Amazing, really.

While the subject of business process automation in health care may not have the ‘hair-on-fire’ glamour of EMR, it is like oxygen- you won’t miss it until it starts to deplete. There is still a business to run on the other side of the hospital.
 
I look forward to a discussion with those hospital leaders working to run the 'other side' of the business at mike@chartacloud.com