Rural Hospitals Use New Technology to Efficiently Manage Beds and Transfers
At Rice County District Hospital in Lyons, Kansas, staff are using patient placement technology to coordinate care for both patients inside the 25-bed, level 4 hospital, and those needing to be transferred to another facility. The platform integrates local EMS and other transport services, such as helicopters and planes, with health systems hundreds of miles away who have the specialists necessary to treat a critically injured patient.
Care Coordination and the Labor Shortage: How We Can Prepare
Today’s care coordination is often a manual and time-consuming process that depends on hard-copy patient lists, notes, and other physical documentation. Improving this state of affairs has historically involved throwing people at the problem—dedicating hours and staff to tasks like closing care gaps, securing referrals, placing follow-up calls, and more.
Using Technology to Improve Observation Rates and Drive Appropriate Admissions
The suburban Philadelphia healthcare network, centered around an independent 270-bed hospital, is using predictive analytics technology from XSOLIS to improve medical utilization management. In the first six months of use, officials say they’ve improved observation rates by 20% and observation to inpatient conversion rates by 37%. And three years later, the initial return on investment of 4.6x has now improved to 7.3x.
How to Map Out an Effective and Sustainable Remote Patient Monitoring Program
HealthLeaders recently conducted a round-table with three health system executives to talk about their RPM programs and strategies. This panel featured Carrie Stover, MSN, NP-C, national senior director of virtual care for Ascension; Sarah Pletcher, MD, MHCDS, system vice president and executive medical director for strategic innovation at Houston Methodist; and Kathryn King, MD, MHS, associate executive medical director at the Center for Telehealth at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
Better Quality Through Better Scheduling
A recent report from KLAS called “Patient Perspectives on Patient Engagement Technology 2022” talks about patient, provider, and vendor alignment on patient engagement technology and which of these technologies are most desirable for the patient. Rising to the top of that list are tools that help patients schedule, register for, or check in to an appointment; refill prescriptions; communicate with a physician’s office before a visit; and find a doctor.
What Makes a Healthcare Organization ‘Future Ready’?
How are organizations preparing for the future, and is the industry ready to leverage its technology, skill, and leadership for what lies ahead? We discussed this with James Domine, chief technology for Avail Medsystems, which provides solutions to connect procedural healthcare professionals regardless of their location through audio, video, and other software.
Electronic Peer-to-Peer Consulting to Combat Long Wait Times
The issues of access and available trained personnel are more complex in a world that has gone through a pandemic. “We’re seeing practitioners who are truly burned out,” says Chi. “COVID really drove everyone to the mat. It caused a large transition in specialty and PCP levels—people who were thinking about retiring are saying, ‘I’m done.’ ”
How AI-Enabled Remote Patient Monitoring Is Improving Patient Adherence and Outcomes
The rapid shift toward telehealth accelerated the adoption of remote patient monitoring and played a significant role in making at-home care a reality. This new care delivery model helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among the most vulnerable and allowed providers to deliver the full continuum of care for patients with acute and chronic illnesses.
Value-Based Care: What Makes a Successful Transition?
VBC should be a familiar concept these days, as CMS is pushing to have 90%–100% of reimbursement under VBC by 2030. That’s driving commercial relationships, employer/employee relationships, contracting, and more.
Mastering the Tricky Act of Transforming Population Health With Technology
Albert Tomchaney, MD, became the first chief medical officer of the Indiana-based Franciscan Alliance, which operates as Franciscan Health, in 2008. He has managed the physician practices for a time and overseen hospital operations such as pharmacy and care management. But throughout, and especially now, his focus has been on population health activities.