Health

The advantage of a digital front door when it comes to population health needs



Population health management has become an important competency of hospitals and health systems. But the road to implementing effective public health strategies is fraught with challenges: tracking rates of chronic disease and preventing community transmission, handling emergencies in care-giving situations. routine health care and performing preventive services, all of which require providers to change their traditional fee-for-service workflow.

Advanced healthcare platforms, such as digital front doors, are emerging as an answer to some of these challenges. Digital front doors can help process large amounts of demographic data related to public health and population health.

IT news about healthcare sat down with Keith Algozzine, CEO of UCM Digital Health, a front-door digital technology provider, to address the aforementioned challenges; how digital front doors can help population health; how the digital front door works behind the scenes to accomplish goals; and how the digital front door works with enhanced health benefits like home care and treatment, virtual primary care and therapy to empower people to take better control of their health .

Q. What are some of the challenges facing successful population health management programs today?

ONE. More and more organizations are looking for ways to improve the health of the populations they serve. They understand that “health” is more than just “wellness” and are looking for ways to make a positive impact on health status.

Implementing population health initiatives comes with challenges. Expertise and experience is required, which is why many organizations are looking for third-party partners to help them execute health improvement initiatives. These initiatives often fall outside of direct care and fall within the range of social determinants of health.

Once a population health initiative is defined, the challenge becomes to identify the right individuals to reach out to and personalize the approach to meet the unique needs of the patient. Overall health depends on ensuring that patients receive timely, medically appropriate preventive care and that patients with chronic conditions are actively monitored to prevent future complications.

There is no doubt that engaging patients and getting them involved in their care is crucial to improving health. For example, many patients know that there are things they can do to improve or maintain their health, but do not because of unrelated health barriers.

It is not enough to urge someone to see a primary healthcare provider; We must make sure they have transportation to get to the appointment and that their work schedule or other responsibilities and circumstances do not interfere with, make it difficult or impossible for them to attend an online medical appointment. next.

Once an initiative is identified and implemented, compliance, compliance, and patient outcomes tracking are key to continued success. Because data is not always seamlessly integrated between different points in a patient’s healthcare journey, providers and other organizations don’t always get the full picture. on patient compliance and follow-up.

A robust data platform can be effective in bridging this gap. It allows different organizations to have visibility into each other’s data and information, allowing for a more complete understanding of that patient’s health.

Q. Do you suggest digital doors that could help healthcare delivery organizations overcome some of these challenges. How?

ONE. A digital front door can be effective in removing barriers while ensuring that patients have a continuum of care specifically designed for their individual needs. Service delivery organizations are often unable to reach the patients who benefit most from population health plans.

Digital health and digital front doors can be an effective means of providing any patient with access to a medical or mental health care provider, eliminating the barriers by allowing patients to connect via phone, chat, video, or even asynchronously. Care can start digitally but can extend to the home with a combination of hands-on support from health professionals working alongside telemedicine providers most of the time. like.

Programs can be created to proactively identify and reach the right people to make health visits, close care gaps, and address social determinants of health by how to connect to community resources, for example.

Transforming a healthcare encounter into a virtual visit can break down a range of barriers and create success in population health initiatives. With digital-first care, for example, patients don’t have to worry about travel and transportation to get to an appointment. Save time and money on commuting.

Productivity is achieved at work and at home. Skipping work or family responsibilities for a few minutes for a virtual visit can be more feasible for many people than missing a few hours to travel round-trip to and from an in-person appointment. A virtual provider can even tour a home by video to identify hazards or other social determinants of health and assist patients in next steps to address them.

You can’t act if you don’t know. In traditional healthcare environments, information is fragmented. Collecting health and non-health information allows you to identify actions that can be taken to improve patient health. An effective data platform can facilitate data sharing and integration, providing providers and other organizations with complete visibility into patient health information, including the ability to track population health program compliance and outcomes.

An effective data platform can solve data interoperability issues, further enabling population health initiatives. For example, platforms may have the ability to understand and translate different sets of code across organizations so they can collectively understand patient data and information, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Q. How does the digital front door work behind the scenes to achieve these goals?

ONE. Patients want convenience and the digital front door can offer them. The digital front door can open 24/7/365, allowing patients access when they really need it, with often non-existent or minimal wait times.

The quality of care is comparable to, if not greater than, the care provided in a traditional setting. Service providers can often spend more time with patients and provide personalized attention and care. For patients, there is no need to spend time in the doctor’s waiting room, where the patient is also at risk of contracting other diseases.

Patient compliance is also higher in the digital space, with data emerging from the National Library of Medicine showing that patients are less likely to miss a telemedicine appointment. And with care available on request, there’s no need to make an appointment.

A common data platform can be effective in connecting patient data across organizations to get a full picture of the patient, enabling holistic care and looking at the patient holistically instead of private, confidential medical meeting.

It can be effective in combining multiple platform partners for optimal patient care. For example, connecting a partner offering home labs, along with a telehealth provider and actual primary care physician, to enable data sharing and collaboration with patient’s well-being, keeping in mind the appropriate level of care and best outcomes as goals.

Q. How can the digital front door work with health-enhancing benefits, such as home care and treatment, virtual primary care, and therapy to empower people Take control of their health better?

ONE. This is truly the future of caregiving. The digital front door can provide a single point of entry and experience for the patient. They provide patients with access to enhanced benefits because they provide access to a wide range of patient services across a variety of care settings: virtual urgent and urgent care, care virtual mental health, virtual primary care, home care and more.

Patients can initiate care digitally, receive care completely virtual, or can continue care at home, if and when needed. Patients are empowered and empowered to choose how and when they interact with the healthcare system.

We are entering a digital landscape where doctors and paramedics can work together to provide home care as an alternative to an ambulance ride to the room. hospital emergency.

We are seeing 911 systems now that can connect callers with nurse navigators or with telemedicine to address health needs without having to wait hours in the emergency room, helping service Care is more accessible, affordable and safer. And use scarce healthcare resources wisely, for example, by allowing medical centers and 911 to focus on real emergencies.

The digital front door can do a lot of things that our healthcare systems should do but fail to do. How much better would a patient be if the healthcare provider checked in with them again three days after the virtual visit to make sure treatment and recovery went as planned?

How much will that digital engagement and tracking increase population health program compliance, along with overall health and patient satisfaction? A digital presence is clearly the future of care, allowing providers to make meaningful connections with patients and other organizations and engage patients for their health.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.





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