Nick Knowlton
Sep 15 2022
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Nick Knowlton, Vice President of Business Development, ResMed – SaaS
As the healthcare ecosystem shifts toward driving efficiency through value-based reimbursement plans that affect post-acute care providers, referral sources, or both, interconnectivity is becoming increasingly important. To truly differentiate themselves in the eyes of referral sources, home-based care organizations must ensure that data both follows the patient and can be communicated and acted upon in real time.
This comes at a time when the cost of readmitting just one patient can average over $15,000. And with the median readmission rate at 3.8 million as of 2018 and Medicare penalizing providers for excessive readmissions, it’s no surprise that reducing these costly rehospitalizations are becoming more of a priority in home-based care.
The good news is that many readmissions can be preventable. Here we’ll discuss how technology can help your organization create deeper connections, drive early interventions, and reduce rehospitalizations through digital tools that allow interoperability and real-time communication.
Interoperability can help achieve early intervention.
The faster you get the post-acute care clinicians a holistic view of the patient, the sooner you can point out problems—and that can all be based on clinical data. Gathering information from patients and family members about the state of the patient and being able to accurately sum up information from both referral sources and care providers that have worked with the patient elsewhere are critical needs to achieve early intervention.
Once they consolidate this information, post-acute care providers can have an accurate care record of that patient—a tremendous value to reduce rehospitalizations.
Patient discussion groups (PDGs) can give referral sources real-time visibility.
When a patient has any issue, the care team can create a PDG—a real-time messaging thread for nurses, referring physicians, specialists, and any other approved party other than the patient. This approach keeps all dialogue around a specific care plan in one accessible place, easily includes those who need patient status updates, and helps to quickly determine the best course of action by significantly reducing the need for phone calls.
Virtual medication management can lead to reduced rehospitalizations.
With the ability to change medication without the need to physically see a patient, the need for phone tag is eliminated—and patients aren’t left waiting for refills. Customized digital form capabilities allow home-based care providers to electronically send refill or change requests, get them promptly filled, and avoid delay of care. The result of this virtual approach to medication management can speed up treatment and reduce rehospitalizations.
Video can keep providers connected to those they serve.
When patients have a serious concern, nurses can instantly know whether an in-home visit is needed or virtually educate the patient on how to treat the problem by communicating via video chat. This face-to-face communication helps care teams determine the severity of the issue, allowing them to intervene quickly and avoid an unnecessary hospitalization.
Schedule a demo today to see for yourself how CitusHealth is built with the digital tools that can help providers achieve deeper connections, drive early interventions, and reduce rehospitalizations.
