From Information Black Hole to Unified Clinical Collaboration
By Edward Marx
In 1995, I landed my first role in healthcare technology as the director of physician information systems. It was a David vs. Goliath situation. Our smallish stand-alone hospital was in the fight for its life against the cross-town rival, who just happened to be part of a well-capitalized mega system. The Board agreed to an additional $1M in capital for IT to deploy a strategy to increase the hospital’s ability to enhance physician relationships via technology.
Very forward-thinking even by today’s standards.
And it worked. In the KPI’s that mattered to us, we shifted market share from 40 to 60% in hearts, births, home health, and outpatient visits. In two years, we flipped the market! Revenue was up while quality improved. Physician and patient satisfaction climbed as we leveraged technology to improve services. What was the main reason for this drastic change? Communication.
Photo by Irwan
Tertiary and quaternary clinicians often view hospitals and associated medical staff as black holes of information. By changing these dynamics, we enhanced existing relationships and forged new ones.
We automated the delivery of the information that mattered to our primary and tertiary physicians. Admissions, discharges, referrals. Oh my! You name it. If it was important to them, it was important to us. Something as simple yet complex as communication was the differentiator.
Don’t forget this was 1995—we accomplished all this with 1990’s technology! It was modems and “store and forward” protocols. More recently, I came across careMESH. They use modern technology to deliver results like those I described above. Gone are the modems and outdated protocols, and in their place are simple APIs that connect to hospital systems and an intuitive U/I for the recipient. This means their clients can:
Deliver admissions, discharge notifications, and referrals to every US clinician or practice right from the hospital EHR.
Streamline and automate inbound referral workflows to support complex patients, such as those requiring oncology, cardiology, or transplant—with integrated communications to keep referring providers informed.
Provide the entire care team—across town or the nation—with secure, real-time access to patients’ electronic medical records.
Bring distributed care teams together using secure email and texting that integrates with the EHR.
Hospitals such as Tampa General Hospital are marching steadily down this path, as we did in my earlier story. It is clear from both examples that the key for hospitals to prosper is ensuring strong communication channels throughout the healthcare ecosystem. careMESH is a simple yet sophisticated solution that can help ensure unified collaboration.
Let’s face it. Hospitals are facing extreme competition that extends far beyond the cross-town rival I mentioned earlier. Retailers have sprouted networks in every city competing for physicians. Payers now own and control more primary care physicians than hospitals. The best way for hospitals to compete is by delivering the highest quality patient care while ensuring the flow of pertinent patient information between every part of the healthcare ecosystem. Hospitals that double down on their clinical communication capabilities will maintain and gain market share.
It truly is survival of the digitalist.
Ed
Edward Marx is the Chief Digital Officer of The HCI Group, Former CIO at Cleveland Clinic, and a member of the careMESH Board of Advisors.