From 3D printing bones to mass producing medicine, nothing has fueled the progress of healthcare more than the innovations of technology. As with all major advances from the wheel to electricity, technology has become interwoven in the infinite facets of our lives. 

We can learn a lot about where we’re headed from where we’ve been. As this is such an expansive topic, we’re kicking off the discussion with three of the biggest technological contributions to medicine, and how we’re using them today to make medical care more effective, and more accessible. 

3D organs & Robots in the O.R.

First on our list is something straight out of an A.I. Science Fiction movie. Thanks to 3D printing technologies; some internal organs, and even bones can be quickly generated and implanted into the body. 3D printing even makes aids like prosthetics more financially accessible because of lower production costs, and easier manufacturing.

3D tech isn’t just about creating objects, it’s also about mapping. 3D modeling – like the kind used to scan actors for CGI – can be used to map a patient’s insides for better diagnosis, and also used to create a simulated environment for surgeons to test out procedures before taking a solution to the table. 

Using 3D mapping in combination with robotic surgeries has had great impact on delicate operations like mitral valve repairs, and spinal surgeries. Robotic surgeons are highly sensitive and specific machines, programmed and operated by advanced medical teams, to carry out extremely delicate procedures with increasing specificity. Imagine, 50 years down the road, what remote operated surgical machines could do for patients with limited mobility, or rural geographies. 

Big Data in the Palm of Your Hand

Since we’re already talking about mapping things, we need to zoom in on big data. What is “big data”, just a fancy way of saying a really, really, large amount of data spanning multiple endpoints, (patient age, population, symptoms, finances, medical history, etc.). And we know, it sounds a bit scary. 

There’s a stigma around big data that it’s somehow all knowing and therefore invasive – but when it comes to medicine, big data allows for vast intuitive care.

The Healthcare sector’s big data market will reach roughly $70 billion dollars by 2025, according to consulting firm, Bain & Company. 

The equation is simple: more data + increased collection speed = an increase in healthcare applications. The biggest hurdle for data – up until now – has been obstacles when it comes to transferring data between medical institutions. HIPAA, security parameters, and legal boundaries all make it challenging for data to be used across organizations to chart and map health trends, predict disease patterns, and analyze health issues for specific populations. 

Why Do We Need Data to Be Borderless?

Having secure access to widespread medical data means that organizations can create wellness channels, make informed decisions about where hospitals are needed, see the scope of need for certain therapies, and track trends that affect the overall health of the nation. 

But once we have all the data? How can we best implement it at scale?

Telehealth

The Mayo Clinic defines Telehealth as:

Telehealth is the use of digital information and communication technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access health care services remotely and manage your health care. 

With this definition we can apply the word telehealth to anything from calorie counting apps, to remote monitoring for pacemakers. “If you build it, they will come”, and in this digital field of dreams, apps offer infinite solutions to remote healthcare obstacles. 

Mobility is an issue for disabled and elderly populations especially, telehealth not only offers medical visits via video – but can also orchestrate transportation and manage insurance and financing. 

In conjunction with big data applications, organizations that employ comprehensive telehealth solutions can prioritize patients by risk, constantly evaluate treatments and needs, manage scheduling, prescriptions, administer supportive therapies (physical therapy and psychiatric care), as well as create single-button communication pathways between patient and practitioner. 

Data = Data

By increasing care accessibility to patients, we increase their willingness to participate in their care journeys. More data equals more resources and more information which can be analyzed for further care programs and medical advances. 

Complex Architecture for Better Health

Creating a smart architecture is step one to implementing and assessing the benefits of big data, and applying it to a telehealth solution. In recent years, the Primavera team has mapped and constructed its architecture along with developing technologies. 

Through the pairing of a complex IT architecture with relationship database systems, the primavera team has focussed on contributing to closing the information gap when it comes to healthcare data resources. 

Our system stands out as one developed by working practitioners alongside top-tier developers and healthcare executives to revolutionize the practical application of data and apply it to care continuum advancements. 

A stand-alone operating system, Primavera is incredibly simple to use for both patients and practitioners. Designed for efficiency, and packed with the clinical and financial tools needed to run your practice. 

Medical technologies and data applications will only continue to advance. You want to partner with a platform that can grow along with tech while prioritizing patients and the success of your practice. It’s easier together. Reach out to us today for a demo. 

Providing excellent healthcare is the reason case management is necessary. Case management is the nuts and bolts of any practice, and creates a network you can rely on when developing action plans, and flagging priority cases. 

For clinicians, having an established workflow is mission-critical as your workflow directs where you invest your time, and dictates how much time you are able to spend to provide optimal care to all patients.

Creating a meaningful workflow is a data-driven project. Ready to learn how?

Reliability

A reliable system has priorities. While it’s possible to manually prioritize your patients and evaluate each case, it’s also a significant time commitment. This is where data-driven analysis is an asset.

Predictive Data

Let’s talk about data. First of all, it’s a small word for such a large concept. Data is everything from the information a client contributes about themselves, to the observations of nurses and practitioners, to financial and insurance details, medications, demographics, and a variety of other touch points concerning the patient’s day-to-day state. 

Predictive data solutions interpret this large collection of information and categorize it based on your parameters to funnel clients into different levels of risk based on their diagnoses, patient population, care plan, and progress. 

The main benefit? Preventive Care.

Preventive Care

It’s great to have a database that prioritizes your cases, but that does no good if you aren’t receiving alerts, updates, and notifications should a patient’s status change, or new information is added that alters their state.

Prevention is about real-time reaction and not about putting patients on a track and leaving them there.

Receiving real-time notifications with live feeds from hospitals, updates from practitioners, and details from the patients themselves, creates an intervention path before one is needed.

Last-minute services and treatments are not only costly for the patient but also for your practice. Predictive data and a solid alerting system creates a trustworthy “early warning” feature that is invaluable.

Education

Case management is no longer a one-way street dedicated to corralling patients. Now, it’s developing into a broader communication highway that you can use to educate your clients, prescribe, manage transportation, and schedule other needed methods of care; physical therapy, mental health therapies, etc. 

An educated patient is going to provide you with better information, strengthening your case management model, and elevating the success of your practice on a large scale.

Using telehealth to provide patients with trusted informative links and resources also builds trust between you and the patients you care for.

Efficiency

We all strive for work-life balance, and as a practitioner/clinician, balance is often a tall order. Intelligent case management makes it easier to establish a schedule that is smarter for your patients and simpler for you – without compromising your work-ethic or commitments. 

Cloud-Efficiency

The National Centre for Biotechnology Information keeps track of case management history, and some form of case management has existed for more than a century to help mitigate costs and prioritize care. The 90’s saw it emerge as a software solution, but we only took it cloud-based in 2008. 

Cloud-based means a few things:

• Built in software support
• A Broad connection to current National data (demographics etc.) 
• Easy (and we mean 1-click easy) access and ease-of-use for your patients and employees
• Up-to-date security/compliance

Human Touch, Not Human-Error

A big opposition point to using a case management solution is that it takes the empathy and intuition of human eyes off of the prioritization process. 

This isn’t entirely true. 

What a case management solution does is cut down on human error in terms of data entry, scheduling, and record keeping, which actually equals more time available to allocate toward patient intake, care, and follow-ups.

Location Independence

Remote work has been a primary topic as of late – but it’s not a new concept to case management or telehealth. Case management solutions like ours don’t care if the patient lives in a rural part of the country, has mobility issues, or is otherwise unable to easily place themselves in the same room as their practitioner. 

Case management in combination with telehealth removes geographical obstacles entirely without compromising the quality of your interactions.

Further Analysis

We’ve talked a lot about how case-management affects your patients, but there are also ways to use it to streamline your admin process, improve your employee workflows, and elevate your accountability through managing users, assigning cases, and scheduling automated reminders and follow ups.

Regardless of who you are tracking, case management solutions generate reports, metrics, and analytics that can influence your decision-making and contribute to healthy patients and healthy growth. 

Your criteria, your care, your patient continuum, our platform is yours. Providing quality care and creating an efficient case management solution is easier together, reach out to us today to schedule a demo!

Integrating telehealth software may not be your first idea when it comes to expanding your services but healthcare software is built to simplify complex data and convert it into action that improves patient outcomes and helps you build your practice.

Sustainable scalability is at the core of every enterprise and there are a few key elements that must exist in any venture. Expanding your services with the ease and benefits of telehealth also means bolstering your infrastructure and knowing your patients.

Here’s our best advice.

Create a Platform Specific to Your Health Community

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), health centers serve 1 in 6 Americans living in rural communities…and nearly half of those institutions (46%) use telehealth to expand their care.

Since its beginnings at NASA in the late 1960’s, telehealth has bridged a gap between healthcare and accessibility for patients in remote locations. Over time it has been used to develop programs and funnel resources to patients with limited mobility, resources, and knowledge about the care options available to them.

Telehealth can facilitate everything from psychiatry to dermatology to specialized care for at-risk populations. The path to expanding your services through telehealth lies in understanding the level of access available within your geographic area. Which modalities need increased accessibility?

Assess & Improve Your Service Availability

A backend benefit to implementing telehealth is that it gives you a data bank to analyze, and informs on your patients demographics, concerns, success, and level of interaction. Demographic and accessibility data provides a foundation for effectively employing the services of transportation vendors and other third-party assets that can help grow your care platform both geographically and with additional modalities.

Patient data also works to evaluate risk and prioritize care to those who need it most critically. Data automation is a powerful asset when it comes to both the efficiency of your practice and the success of your care programs but in order for it to work, it has to be used consistently.

Keep it Simple

Here’s the equation:

Ease of Use + Consistent Use = Data

For a telehealth program to be successful it needs to be easy for your patients to use – just a click of a button – simple. To grow your services through telehealth you need the platform to be used consistently and that means integrating communication, reminders, and alerts for your patients throughout their care journey. 

This also applies to your internal practice and care teams. We break it down into three steps:

Choose

Assess the needs of your practice with Primavera experts to develop a smart plan for integrating with a telehealth platform. Discuss streamlining your software and healthcare solutions, and plan for a successful implementation.

Use

As you collect data, discover the benefits of real-time data analysis in terms of risk-assessment, patient communication, and simplified communication between patients, practitioners, and vendors. Telehealth should be a practical tool for your team that makes providing care a positive experience and not labor.

Thrive

Benefit from our mission; Easier Together. Primavera was developed by working practitioners to be a tool for simplification. The results are an easy to use interface with a robust backend that can handle complex functionality while helping you analyze your practice for sustainable growth. 

Establish Roles and Responsibilities

We’ve talked a lot about data and scalability, but what about organization? A big aspect of healthy growth lies in defining and managing the roles and responsibilities of your team and contractors. 

Aside from managing the schedule for each patient’s care journey, telehealth provides the means for assigning casework, follow-ups, internal tasks, and creates channels for tracking the more bureaucratic processes that go into a successful healthcare business. To improve both your patient care and the success of your business, reach out now and schedule a demo! 

Customize Your Care Continuum

One of the greatest advantages to telehealth is that it supports individual care plans through easily managed scheduling, support for multiple modalities with a variety of practitioners, payment and insurance support, and more. 

In keeping with its theme of customization for patients, quality telehealth platforms can be tailor-made to meet the needs of practices and healthcare institutions like case management, easy note taking and organization, secure record sharing (HIPPA compliant), video communication, etc.

Different providers have different needs. The needs of a non-profit will differ from the needs of a small practice, or a larger hospital. Growing the services offered and supported through telehealth means that telehealth needs to be easily adopted by the full spectrum of care centers, but also able to act as a bridge between practices to create a successful care network that can expand with stability. 

The best way to start is with a consultation. Meet with one of our Primavera experts to discuss how our solution can meet your specific requirements and help you grow. Schedule your time to demo today and start streamlining for growth.  

After a year of experimenting through another iteration of a telehealth journey, using telehealth as a primary option among quarantine and social distancing; the verdict is out and telehealth has a permanent seat at the table. The undeniable benefits of convenience brought by telehealth – paired with the revelation that telehealth can provide highly personalized care – really turned the tables on how we think about our health system in general. 

Let’s take a look at some of the hurdles, and look ahead to the evolving benefits of a premium care solution that fits in the palm of your hand – the telehealth journey. 

The Telehealth Journey

Perhaps one of the reasons telehealth has been so successful under the extreme circumstances of the recent past, is that it was created out of a need to provide care in extraordinary circumstances and across vast distances.

Telehealth first began as a way of providing medical support to remote, (and we mean really remote) locations. Like far-off islands, mountains, and space. Versions of telehealth have existed among exploration groups, the military, and missionary teams for years. 

Image source NIH.gov The cover of Radio News magazine, April, 1924. 

Even as early as the 1920’s, the public has gravitated toward the idea of medical care from the convenience and comfort of their living rooms. Which perhaps is a more familiar attitude towards wellness harkening back to the 1800’s when Doctors came directly to their patient’s homes.

Modern Medicine & Technology

Radio wires and cumbersome antennae are not cluttering the devices of American homes. Aside from convenience, telehealth is becoming widespread thanks to the natural partnership between the technological advances in medicine, patient management, and personal electronic devices.

Evolving Benefits of Telehealth

Telehealth is an educational medium as well as a vehicle for providing healthcare. Through networking, analytics, and alert structure; telehealth is able to provide information, schedule therapies and self care, and connect patients to public health benefits and resources.

Better Together

As different aspects of healthcare evolve and are incorporated into the telehealth journey and spectrum, it’s critical for ease-of-use to keep telehealth assets together in a single portal. An all in one platform means a few things, here’s the short list.

For Patients:

• Easy accessibility to the portal itself. Is this a website? An App? Does anything need to be downloaded? Is it available in more than one language?
• Connectivity resources and contacts are built into the app
• The Platform provides relevant educational resources related to the patient’s care program
• Follow-ups and appointments can be scheduled and conducted via video with little effort
• Patients can track their own care progress and provide input on their own wellness

For Care Providers:

• Patient data is able to be connected and accessed through the portal
• Appointments and transportation can be scheduled and care plans can be outlined
• Patient data can be analyzed and organized based on risk assessment
• Security is a priority to protect data within regulations and HIPAA compliance
• Actions within the platform are logged for auditing
• Integrates with a larger more robust software suite

Evident Success

In a study conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, “the number of digital health visits ballooned from 1,100 in February to nearly 13,000 in March, and all 1,200 ambulatory faculty were able to conduct virtual visits by April 3, 2020”

There’s no doubt that the telehealth journey is still growing in use with one of the key benefits being that it is a quick to implement solution. Though some hospitals were better prepared pre-pandemic with a more technical infrastructure, the solution of telehealth is extremely scalable regardless of an individual’s comfort level with technology, or a lack of an existing virtual health network. 

Preparing for Hurdles

The telehealth journey has not been a challenge free process and there are still hurdles to address. According to the Becker Hospital Review:

Over the next five years, one of the biggest hurdles for new virtual care and telehealth technology will be the governance structure at health systems. It will be essential for providers to partner with vendors to make sure new technology and virtual care initiatives serve the patient population equally.

Networking is key, and selecting a telehealth platform to work with that has connections with vendors and public health resources is the only way to fly. We can see a growing need for the convenience of built-in scheduling to manage multiple providers, payors, and patient plans, but organization is only a single ingredient. 

We project that most telehealth hurdles can be overcome with smart data management and analysis. Dashboards make it easy to navigate through analytics, and a seamless integration with software makes a one-stop telehealth portal secure and reliable. 

Curious to Explore?

The world of telehealth has many winding paths, but like we said – we’re better together. Reach out to us today to schedule a demo and learn what a care-oriented telehealth solution can do for you.

If you build it, they will come.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then adaptation is the mother of growth. The healthcare world has been transformed. At the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show  the leaps in healthcare technology this past year were described as nothing less than meteoric. Though there has been extreme growth in the way telehealth supports the healthcare industry, the effects are perhaps more extensive than we yet realize. 

So, how can the right technology promote healthier living for your patient base?

Tools of Accessibility = Healthier Living

Accessibility means a few things when it comes to technology in general:

• Provides software solutions for a variety of circumstances
• Creates a communication platform 
• Is accessible across devices and providers

In telehealth, accessibility has a few more requirements:

• Provides solutions for both patients and practitioners
• Able to manage multiple population types and their varying needs from mental wellness to physical care
• Easy to use for non tech savvy patients

Frictionless Action

Let’s talk a bit more about the specific accessibility requirements for telehealth to improve the quality of care for patients, by going through how minimizing technology frustration helps boost a patients contribution to their own care and their own data collection. 

Ease of access and ease of use are major contributors to a preventative care approach. As an asset to the greater healthcare continuum, accessibility contributes to analytics databases which lead to more accurate risk assessment; and also lends itself to an increase in communication and patient engagement. 

Accessibility means affordability. In turn, accessibility and affordability together equal healthier living. Telehealth is proven to reduce overall healthcare costs for patients and practitioners alike. In a research study conducted through Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc, The benefits of effective telehealth were found to encompass a wide scope of quality care and financial obstacles.

Telehealth can complement traditional ambulatory and hospital-based practices, which tend to be provider-centric, by creating delivery systems that are more patient centered and that use technology to increase access and quality, decrease cost, and help providers manage an ever-increasing volume of information and relationships.

As patient populations increase due to aging or awareness, (as in mental health), telehealth will continue to play the parts of logistics coordinator, patient advocate, and assist with case management through intuitive systems, data analysis, and application.

Transportation

One of the simplest ways health technology platforms support the growth of patient populations – and the expansion of the healthcare industry generally – is by cutting down on the physical transportation needed in order for patients to receive care. 

With the acceleration of virtual communication efforts over the last year especially, telehealth solutions have never been more convenient for:

• Account setup and patient intake
• Initial consultations
• Follow-up appointments and check-ins
• Mental wellness sessions

Coordination via tech platforms between providers and transportation vendors further works to meet patient needs and promote healthier living when mobility is an issue. To better understand this, let’s look specifically at patient populations living in nursing home facilities.

When a medical issue occurs outside of regular hours, the traditional solution offers a choice. An on-call physician can either visit the patient in the nursing care facility, or recommend that patient for transfer to a hospital. 

If we consider the time demands on the on-call physician, with multiple patients, very often the best of the above options is to have the resident brought to an emergency department. 

The driving theme behind telemedicine is real-time care. Tools like video calling make remote appointments both safer and easier for the patient, but help practitioners provide better care by minimizing time demands of travel, or decision making by prioritizing through data based risk assessment.

Quality of Care

We’re about to bring up a trend that is unpopular amongst care providers, and that is patients using websites to self-diagnose. The one positive that this widespread internet search obsession proves is that patients are not only interested, but motivated to take their healthcare into their own hands – including educating themselves and taking action upon what they find.

A less talked about asset of telehealth platforms is the access they provide to vetted educational information, and supporting services that encourage patients to be proactive with their wellness. These platforms accomplish this by:

• Connect patients to local services and payment options
• extend healthcare resources through convenience and easy access
• enhance follow-up care by connecting patients to supporting therapies 
• improve client access to services by minimizing travel 
• and increase the accuracy of patient’s medical data

This last point, increasing the accuracy of patient’s data, is something we’ve mentioned a few times now and is probably the largest contributor to the growth and effectiveness of quality telehealth.

Data is information. It provides analytics that represent diagnoses, demographics, treatments responsiveness, patient engagement, therapy effectiveness, and more. Data compiles points on cost, helps with supply chain logistics, and provides both the framework and content needed to create accurate risk assessment protocols which help practitioners prioritize care to those who need it most. 

Effective care in 2021 is communication based and combines clinical expertise with the latest technologies to improve care quality. Providing healthcare is easier together, let us show you how. Reach out to schedule your demo today!

The Full Care Continuum is a patient’s journey from preventive care, to hospital, to rehabilitation, to maintenance through general medicine or primary care. While it would make for a more simplistic system, not every patient will follow these movements in the same order.

Through intuitive case management, practitioners and case workers can not only keep track of a patient’s individual journey, but maximize the effectiveness of their care through communication, analysis, and automation.

Why does this work? Intuitive case management is a product of a multi-faceted digital approach to care, designed by clinicians who are inspired by other successful multi-angled care initiatives.

Convenient Care with Multi-Specialty Facilities

A multi-specialty clinic is a facility with shared resources. Doctors, administrative staff, support staff, even funding and equipment are shared among multiple internal practices that partner together to provide an integrated, holistic care environment.

It’s easy to see how a multi-care model naturally compliments the full care continuum. Patients receiving care within one “practice” of the multi-care facility are already connected with resources for other forms of care without the stress of insurance providers or other restrictions.

The Multi-Specialty model has been around longer than we realize. In fact, one of our most recognized medical facilities, the Mayo Clinic, is a multi-specialty care center which, by 1926, had developed an integrated structure made up of 386 dentists and physicians.

Unprecedented Growth

The healthcare industry has experienced unprecedented growth throughout the last decade going from almost 3 trillion in National healthcare service expenditures (excluding prescription drugs and equipment) in 2010 to just under 4 trillion by 2020.

This described growth makes cohesion between practices paramount purely from a functional infrastructure perspective, let alone the patient experience. The question is, how do we connect resources seamlessly keeping the patient in mind?

Digital Multi-Specialty Models

Integrated healthcare platforms are the latest construction space for innovative, care-centered health professionals who have worked with developers to improve the relationships between patients, payors, and practitioners. At the core of this model is case management.

As with brick and mortar multi-specialty facilities, digital healthcare suites aim to seamlessly transition resources between care types through an easy to navigate software that manages data and documents while facilitating connection between providers and vendors.

A necessary added layer to the digital suite, which does not have a physical counterpart, are a series of actionable plans that trigger alerts based on constantly updating parameters. Patient data is a significant ally in orchestrating a full care approach. The fact that you can access your patient’s information – or even just contact your patient directly – at the touch of a button, only increases the time you get to properly communicate with and assess your patients.

Breaking Down the Digital Healthcare Suite

Case management is the healthcare industry’s tried and true approach to navigating patients through the care continuum, and it is classically an approach made up of human efforts.

Let’s walk through what case management looks like with a supportive digital foundation:

• Reminders can be set and prioritized by risk level to create follow up tasks, but also to utilize predictive data to flag patient files in the preventive care stage before health risks become escalated.
• In an escalated health scenario; hospitalized patients, or populations requiring consistent acute care, real-time notification offer priority updates to inform the case manager, but can also alert other networked professionals in the system.
• A linked education platform provides materials to share with clients and patients regarding their personal care management; supportive therapies, and general health information.
• Custom care plans can be plotted out and scheduled, transportation can be arranged, and patients can continue to be monitored and prioritized via data as well as through easy methods of direct communication – both with patients and practitioners.

A quality healthcare platform is a symbiotic solution that works for patients from an individual care perspective, and also works for time-pressed professionals with data prioritization, alert escalations, and structured scheduling.

Learning as We Go

The good thing about data is that it accumulates. Data analytics overtime leads to more intuitive digital processes that increase the specificity of risk assessment and alerting. As the technology progresses, the base fundamentals of case management remain the same:

1. Provide care for the patient
2. Guide the patient through the care continuum, adapting to their unique needs and providing education and logistical solutions
3. Utilize modern tools and technologies to make structuring patient care efficient but also manageable for you.

All of the above speak to creating a quality journey for the patient through the healthcare system, but also a journey for case workers and practitioners that can be easily managed and enacted. The old adage, work smarter not harder definitely applies here. Overworked care providers who are maxed out on their resources will not be able to fulfill their role on the care continuum. Data analysis, risk assessment, scheduling, and automation help with resource management across the care network for a better care experience.

Care is not possible without a plan. Curious how a digital healthcare suite can help you? Reach out to schedule your demo or for a free trial!

The amplified burden placed on nurses lately may have been spurred by the Pandemic but the resulting trends are likely here to stay. That means more work for nurses in the coming years to onboard new practices and systems and apply them in preparation to move forward into a new phase of healthcare where tech plays a much more integrated role. Studying the life of nurses can help us all deliver better patient results going forward.

What has the recent journey of nurses taught us about how tech can help, and in some cases, how it can hinder?

Alert Fatigue & Data Overload in the Life of Nurses

There’s a lot of talk in tech about systems having had to adapt over the last year. Perhaps no industry has felt this more than Health. 

Even “good” systems can crack under too much weight and hospitals and clinics across the country have been operating beyond maximum capacity for some time now. Many of these systems have had to work quickly and adapt to the increasing need for; alert escalation protocols, risk assessment, patient tracking, and a hefty influx in data entry.

Incompatibility & Inefficiency 

Technology is synonymous with efficiency but that’s not always the actual case. Simple processes like patient intake forms can become much more complicated when transitioned to an electronic process depending on things like usability, consistent service, and synchronicity with external systems.

The technology typhoon currently overtaking health and wellness combines standardized practices like intake forms with more robust data analysis and automation, and places the weight of the output largely on nurses.

Care Vs. Cope: Something Doesn’t Compute

Daily responsibilities of a nurse include EHR charting; recording patient behavior, collecting health histories, providing counseling and education to patients and families, interpreting patient data for decision-making, conducting research, carrying out treatment plans…the list is long. 

Now imagine that all of the processes we’ve just mentioned are technology based (because they are), perhaps with multiple applications and alerting systems. “Fatigue” is as common a word in the tech sector as it is in the medical field, in tech we have alert fatigue, screen fatigue, and click fatigue. Not to mention, routine compassion fatigue… The life of nurses is full of demands and there is much motivation to find improvements. So, instead of inundating – any technology used needs to have the goal of streamlining without compromising required functions and data. 

AI: Assist, Don’t Alarm

Setting up broad parameters that trigger alerts can equal an overwhelming number of alerts being sent. This is where automation can step in to prioritize and delegate alerts to the appropriate people. This not only works to curb the amount of alerts any one professional receives, but also to ensure that important data isn’t lost in the daily shuffle. 

Alarming Rates

Research shows that anywhere from 72% to 99% of all alarms are false within critical care units, and some of the reasons may be corrected with better data analysis practices. 

• Alarm parameter thresholds set too tight
• Alarm settings not adjusted to the individual patient’s needs
• Inability of staff to identify the source of the alarm
• Alarm is not heard or conveniently noticeable 

The danger of over-alerting is that nurses and practitioners can become desensitized to alarms over time because, making a real precedence for implementing smarter alert escalation systems and practices. A lot of that has to do with assessment  and establishing parameters, and that requires substantial data analysis, but there’s also another side to alert fatigue and that is data entry. 

Data Per Shift

In a 2018 study done by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health it was conveyed that mean rates were found, “of 633-689 manual flowsheet data entries per 12-hour shift in the ICU and 631-875 manual flowsheet data entries per 12-hour shift in acute care, excluding device data. 

From this study it’s important to highlight that, “Automated streaming of device data only accounted for 5-20% of flowsheet data entries across our sample.”

Let’s break this down. EHR flowsheets are the primary destination for information. They are used by nurses to document information, assessments, and medical interventions. The study recommends that an increase in automated device integration would help to alleviate documentation burden which will cut down the time spent on data entry in general.

What Do Systems Need to Accomplish in the Life of Nurses?

To be successful in both tracking important patient data, and reducing the stress of massive documenting and alerting on nurses, a healthcare system needs to:

• Be easily usable and efficient
• The software needs to be reliable and able to sync to backup systems
• Support multiple downstream uses across device types
• Support decision making through analysis
• Support collaboration through secure data sharing where needed
• Combine and interpret data from multiple sources
• Automate escalations and other functions as needed

And further, alerting parameters need to be implemented that don’t detract from patient care. This requires setting alarm management processes, a review cycle for default parameters, and making employee guidelines for alerting clear and accessible. 

All of this is a big ask for a single system, making a robust backend and an established path for future automation development an absolute requirement. But the creators at Primavera took on this challenge.  All of these healthcare processes can be made Easier Together with a technology suite designed and enacted by health industry leaders to improve the life of nurses. Reach out to us to schedule a demo today. 

Re-imagining the patient experience is at the core of Telehealth. For a platform based on the ease of communication, there have never been more options to connect, communicate, and track the progress of your patients. But telehealth platforms are more than just two-way radios with a built-in calendar and a touch screen. 

Best Practices for Digital Communication in the Patient Experience

Digital health platforms will have communication systems in place that make it both easy for your patients to reach you, and for you to reach out to your patients. Easy communication means more than one communication option; calls, messages, and alerting are three ways to receive and send important updates. 

The platform should keep in mind that not all patients are tech savvy, so calling and messaging should be a single touch process where possible, and no downloading of apps or processes that require a lot of direction should be involved in the spirit of universal accessibility. 

We have an overall conception of communication that it needs to be instant, easy to access, and provide links, or further communication options. Our phone contacts link to our social media profiles, which link to our professional profiles, etc. For the sizable elderly population, this is a bit of a foreign concept – but not an unnecessary one. In fact, this idea of “drilling down” into a patient’s detailed history is paramount for digital health. 

Real-time Communication

Have a communication system in place that feeds practitioners and providers real-time information regarding risk assessment, patient status, and general data from hospitals that affect your ability to provide the best care for the patient, and the best information to the patient’s care team. 

Communication Barriers

A benefit of the technology wave in healthcare is that software and applications can be implemented to easily overcome historically large obstacles like geography or language barriers. Health platforms have the resources to engage patients regardless of their demographics, education level, or mobility with aids like translation apps, easy access to scheduling a network of supportive vendors, and transferable data between the patient and financial programming, all through assigned caseworkers that stay constantly updated through alerts and reporting.

The Patient Experience: Going Beyond the Screen

There are two ways that patient care needs to go ‘beyond the screen’ to elevate the patient experience. 

First, it’s important to engage in one-on-one conversations with patients and have a good “bedside” manner – though with telehealth, the bedside may not be a physical hospital, but rather the patient’s own home. This comes with a few unique challenges; the patient’s home likely lacks the resources of a medical environment. This makes asking questions and scheduling follow ups critical. A health platform creates a format and a space to engage clients in a clinical way without the clinical setting.

Second, is to monopolize on the information and data you gather, and to work with a platform that provides analysis and helpful tools, but also synchronizes with the entire software suite so you can monitor and plan patient care securely and effectively.

Primavera Creates a Clinical, Digital Space

Risk assessment is something we’ve discussed before as it has many applications as the tech health world expands. 

We all know you can’t just snap your fingers and have any professional you need at your fingertips…or can you? An advantage to prioritizing your patient population by their program, risk assessment, diagnosis, or population, is that you can give the patient the impression of instant availability. Not because you have magical psychic powers, but because you have a data-powered system that helps you schedule professionals when they’re most needed. 

A more personal application of assessment is scheduling appropriate follow ups with your patients. By prioritizing risk, you are able to schedule timely follow ups and inform the patient’s entire care team of the process, making communication seem less situational, and more like a neighborly check-in.

Wellness checks can be automated too, assigned, and carried out by any member of a patient’s care team to promote preventive care habits and conversations that work toward further evaluating the patient’s health and assessing their risk – while helping to keep you and your team on time when juggling multiple appointments and patients. 

Frequent and consistent communication goes a long way toward building trust and eliciting helpful responses from your patients but also affords other preventive benefits. Patient isolation, especially in the elderly and immobilized is a major contributing factor to overall health. 

In a research study done on Patient Experience in the Digital Age, the idea that personal health technology provides patients with more resources is confirmed, but also tells us that we must raise questions of incorporating “human” elements into digital care:

 “Though digital technology can empower patients, it can also alter their overall experience, which, in turn, will affect their usage. Hence, managers and policymakers need to recognize and better understand how patients perceive and experience these technologies.”

As patients age, they become more reliant on others for care and interaction. A compassionate way to approach digital health is to recognize that it gives certain populations a state of independence that they may have lost – or may not have ever been able to experience by putting the responsibility of their health and the ability to communicate effectively into the palm of their hands.

Patient care is Easier Together. Learn more about Primavera’s cutting edge case management features by scheduling a demo today. 

The change from fee-for-service to the full risk model can seem daunting. Afterall, it is quite different in many ways. There is peace-of-mind in the fact that many organizations have done this previously and with great success. 

Outside of the change in the medical organization itself, there have been efforts for many years to modernize federal laws, payment methods and incentives to benefit a value-based model. You have the technological tools and examples of many to emulate, improve upon, and to set up your medical or dental group for success.

Healthcare Industry Spending

The inefficiencies in the American healthcare system have been analyzed by countless experts in recent years. For example, the Health System Tracker experts charted the GDP per capita and health consumption spending per capita, 2017 to find that, “Relative to the size of its wealth, the U.S. spends a disproportionate amount on healthcare.” Lawmakers have been looking for new ways to cut spending and improve healthcare outcomes for quite some time. 

The fee-for-service model that was once attractive to physicians made sense. You get paid for the work you do. In the end, this healthcare model created a misplaced incentive that has been linked to physician burnout, increased spending, and has not shown direct improvement in healthcare outcomes. 

For those who have made the change to the Full-Risk Capitation model, the consensus among physicians is a feeling of freedom. Many doctors will tell you that although the value-based model is not perfect, it has been nice to not have to “play the games” to get paid for services rendered. 

Additionally, the focus on prevention and collaboration across the care continuum is fulfilling. Instead of reviewing your monthly reports for how many services rendered, it is rewarding to see the numbers show positive healthcare trends for your patient population. It is well-documented that prevention and early detection are effective at improving patient healthcare outcomes. 

Hospital Readmission Reduction Program

In 2012-2013, the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program was created by CMS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to help mitigate the issue of very expensive readmissions to the hospital. A large number of patients were spending more time and money in the hospital than they were with their doctors for preventive care and follow-ups. To improve the patient outcomes and keep them out of the hospital for unnecessary visits, care teams implemented better post-discharge plans with a higher touch point of communication. Experts predict we will see more of these types of programs across multiple payors in the coming years. Every payor has been and will continue to look for new ways to reduce unnecessary costs when possible. 

Managing the Transition from FFS to Full Risk Model

Understanding the Healthcare Metrics

First things first, you need to know if the numbers will work. If you cannot stay in business, then this won’t benefit anyone. Begin by understanding your KPIs: Funding PMPM, Inpatient/Outpatient Claims PMPM, Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), Percentage of Generic Rx, Profitability Driver (MRA), etc. These basic statistics will be your new measures for your organization’s financial success. 

Using the Metrics to Effect Real Change

Second, you must understand how to effect change in these numbers. By understanding which patients are at higher risk or higher utilizers, you can make meaningful change for both the practice and the patient. Alerts, notifications, industry benchmarks, and real-time data available through data mapping with insurance companies are all key to managing a full risk capitation model. This may mean a culture shift focused on measuring the true value of a procedure and weighing the full cost (emotional stress and physical stress) to the patient before recommending. 

Better Communication Tools

Third, your care teams must have access to easy communication with your patients and other medical professionals on the care team. Emailing and personal phone calls will not go away, but additional tools like telehealth need to fit seamlessly into the necessary day-to-day activities. 

Tip: During this transition time, it is important to modernize your healthcare software to anticipate your new needs and overcome old hurdles. 

Care Team with High Touch Points for Clinical Integration

Additionally, you need a great care team to rely upon to give comprehensive care and a good patient experience. For the full risk healthcare model to be financially successful, the healthcare outcomes must be good. For the healthcare outcomes to be good, your team must be good at communicating with your patients and following up regularly. This model performs best when care teams are in regular and consistent contact with the practice’s entire patient population. 

Fee-For-Service to Full Risk Model Transition Solution

The latest in technology and data analysis to help with a smooth transition from fee-for-service compensation to full risk compensation is here! Primavera provides the technical and professional tools used to measure your practice’s strengths, opportunities, and partnership needs as you explore the possibilities of accountable care organizations and value-based contracting. We’ll map out the steps you need to take to transition your practice. 

Step One: Obtain the financial performance of your patients, not only the clinical. 

Step Two: Determine positive trends amongst different insurance companies.

Step Three: Determine your ability to negotiate higher capitation payments and either partial or full risk deals.

Step Four: Demonstrate your business’s maturity and sophistication to strategic partners including MSOs, Insurance Companies, and Capital partners or investors.

Reach out today for a practice assessment or a simple technology demonstration. With Primavera, it’s easier together. 

“Can you hear me now?” It’s a recognizable catch phrase of our times, an indicator that technology has developed to reach even the furthest corners of rural communities. What we don’t have is a catchphrase response.

The advantage of a healthcare tech platform is connecting practitioners, providers, and resources directly to patients as easily as possible. Though telehealth systems are patient-centric, patients are also a key element in the system; on par with case managers in taking responsibility for their own wellness. Effective healthcare is about reciprocity.

Telehealth is calling, patient engagement lies in getting an answer.

What is Patient Engagement

Patient engagement is about achieving the ideal balance in patients between being well informed, and active in their own preventive care, with knowledge of:

• Treatments
• Recuperation
• Medication
• General wellness practices
• Resources

The first step is establishing effective patient education and this means providing information to them directly from practitioners through a platform; otherwise patients will go rogue and source their own information which may not always be credible.

Education also applies to knowledge of treatments and medications which with telehealth can be done via convenient consultations. In telehealth, education equals ease of accessibility – where all the information needed is at the touch of your fingertips – only it’s coming from experts that have access to a patient’s full medical history.

Building a Patient Engagement Strategy

Patient engagement is expected to experience major growth and many would say not a moment too soon.

Patient engagement is staged to play a key role in the future development of healthcare, and this should come as no surprise. Consider the recent boom in remote resources like mental health, wellness apps, and remote nutrition and physical therapy services. The pieces are all in play but there are challenges in bringing these resources to patients effectively.

Change in routine

Telehealth faces the uphill battle of breaking the habits that patients and practitioners have had for generations, from practicing all functions only from a specific physical location, to the in-person sharing of results and information. Elements like video conferencing, and easy access to patient data help make this transition smoother.

Uncharted Territory

The idea of patient engagement is great but we’ve never before had to implement it. Some trial and error is expected along the way but we do know the basic ingredients; easy access to information, prioritizing and providing care to patients, and a platform to facilitate follow-ups and communication.

Limited Data

Healthcare providers tend to be logical, solution-oriented thinkers. While patient engagement is not a new concept, it is a new product and limited data exists on best practices and effective implementation. Ideally, look for a platform with a heavy backend supporting both data collection and analytics from multiple sources to help determine the flow and direction of your practice and patient outreach.

Tech Savvy

Seniors make up the largest demographic currently receiving extensive healthcare, and will make up more than 20% of the population by 2030. Ask any millennial how easy it was to teach their grandparents to use video calling and the need for an extremely simple user interface becomes obvious. To promote growth in patient engagement, communicating has to be as easy as the touch of a button.

The Healthcare Network

The willingness for providers, practitioners, and healthcare workers to participate in using health tech platforms is a big part of growing and strengthening the healthcare network for the future. The more resources that are available, the more you can offer your patients, and the more structure you can provide.

An Example of Patient Engagement with Telehealth

A patient is diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease with a lot of online information as well as a lot of common misconception. This particular patient has family members who are also diabetic, so has a very basic foundation of what having diabetes means.

The patient’s practitioner has provided insulin and inhibitors for the patient as well as an at home system for monitoring blood sugar. This patient also suffers from limited mobility, and lives in a remote area.

To replace in-person checkups, through a health tech platform the practitioner is able to schedule virtual check-ins, and has made resources available for the patient. The patient has also been assigned a caseworker through the system to help manage necessary transportation, and provide additional check-ins to keep the patient active in their own care.

Additionally, the telehealth system continuously evaluates and prioritizes the patient based on their data – evaluating for increased risk and other factors that trigger system alerts and prompt further care when needed.

A big part of patient engagement of the future will be determined by how well healthcare platforms can manage, evaluate, and prioritize patient data. Connection with patients encourages their engagement, and effective data analysis and alerting ensures that no needed outreach is missed.

Navigating the future of healthcare is easier together. Reach out to us today for a demo!