As our economy has become increasingly digitized, we are generating a massive influx of personal data. Across industries, the winning companies are those that have successfully harnessed the value of that data to create unique and personalized experiences for their customers. How we shop, travel, and handle our finances have been entirely transformed in ways that delight, engender loyalty, and generate repeat business.
Healthcare, however, has generally lagged behind other consumer industries in truly creating such a personal and efficient experience for their customers. This is not a reflection of the proficiency of physicians and caregivers but of the technology systems that support their efforts. These systems are primarily designed to manage the discrete clinical events that drive the revenue cycle of provider organizations.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many innovations for the benefit of the health consumer ー think telehealth, mobile registration, remote patient monitoring ー it has also expanded the health data generated outside the four walls of the provider. The transformation in consumer experience in healthcare will come from a fully realized patient-centric view of the myriad of digital silos that comprise a patient’s health. This shift in perspective from point-of-care events to the holistic patient is foundational to achieving the industry goal of lowering costs while increasing care quality and efficiency.
How far along are we in our digitization efforts?
Healthcare has been behind other industries in digital advancement ー a Harvard Business Review study five years ago placed the industry at number 17 out of 20. The advancements in digitization have tended to be isolated to distinct points of care as reflected in the rapid adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) over the past 15 years. Driven by the Affordable Care Act and Meaningful Use, today 96% of hospitals and 84% of practices record the patient record electronically.
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However, rarely does a single point of care contain the complete health record of a patient. The typical patient sees many providers at different locations which often use different clinical systems. He or she may go to independent labs or pharmacies, may use personal health devices, be monitored at home, or may spend time in rehab or a skilled nursing facility. Much of these events are reflected in claims from their insurance provider which may provide a wider net of coverage but with less clinical depth than the typical EHR record.
As an industry, we are rigorously recording health digitally which is a significant advancement representing years of IT spend. This investment hasn’t yet realized the promised return on investment in quality and experience. The next generation health system anticipates and preempts potential health issues for populations of patients and becomes a system that operates at the 99+% of patients’ time not spent with their physician.
Source: Hitconsultant