When a healthcare organization embraces a value-based care approach or a risk agreement with a health insurance payor, they are accepting the potential risk and reward associated with value-based care. While accepting the reward with a risk agreement may come easy the associated risk is typically not as easy for an organization to manage. With the shift to value-based care, comes a challenge of how to not only manage risk of your patient population but how to overcome the risk as well. 

Identifying and managing high-risk and potential high risk patients is critical to improving the care of your patient population, while identifying cost drivers and intervening timely to reduce the risk.

Managing risk can be done through technology:

1. Measuring it within your patient population
2. Assessing its cause
3. Evaluating its impact 
4. Identifying interventions to solve and avoid risk

Measure

Being able to identify and measure the risk of your patient population is critical in order to intervene. As more and more healthcare organizations embrace value-based care, they are embracing technology that allows them to streamline risk management and reduces admin burden. 

Measuring risk through technology includes: 

1. Financial Risk including utilization cost 
2. Clinical Risk of Patient(s)
3. Measuring Quality Measures
4. Monitoring Chronic Conditions
5. Identifying patient gaps

Without having the proper tools, technology and procedures in place to measure the risk of your patient population, this task can seem almost impossible. 

Assess

Once your organization has the right tools and technology in place to measure the risk of your patient population, the next step is to assess the cause of the associated risk. An organization should be able to identify and assess the cause and attributions of a patient’s risk through:

• Associated chronic conditions
• Hospital visits, including ER versus Inpatient
• Readmission Rates
• MLR (Medical Loss Ratio)
• MRA (Medicare Risk Adjustment)
• Claim number and cost 

Assessing the cause of a high risk patient is essential to evaluating the direct impacts of a high risk patient. 

Evaluate 

Now that you have Measured the risk of your patient population and Assessed the cause, it is important to Evaluate the impact of your patient population that is at high risk. How do you evaluate the direct impact of your high risk patients though? What is the importance of this? 

High risk patients are often considered high utilizers and high cost drivers within an organization. If you don’t identify and intervene with these patients, the patient is going to be impacted negatively and they will continue to cost your organization to lose money. With that being said, it is critical to have the right tools and technology to be able to drill down into the direct impact of a high risk patient and immediately identify room to intervene, improve patient care and decrease cost. 

Manage and Resolve the Risk with Primavera Health 

Taking action as a healthcare organization once you have Measured, Accessed and Evaluated the risk of your patient population is the final and most important step. Primavera Technology allows you to Identify patient trends associated with risk and intervene on a patient level. Intervening and planning a course of action can be executed within our Data Analytics App and Case Management App. 

Instantly identify high risk patients, view detailed clinical and financial information and intervene through creating a case plan. Cases are completely customizable depending on the patient and the associated risk. Options to intervene through a case include: Create tasks for case managers to complete, customizing a Plan of Care and Complete proper documentation of progress of patients health/cost. Primavera is continuously partnering with organizations to improve risk management by intervening with our technology while embracing value-based care. 

Reach out to us today to learn how we support you to continually improve your risk management and value-based care strategy today. 

(888) 667-2219

[email protected]

It is no secret that healthcare can be complicated and oftentimes overwhelming, and when it comes to healthcare data it is no exception. This leads healthcare leaders to ask the question how can a healthcare organization improve their information flow to ultimately improve patient outcomes? According to Healthcare IT Today, “A future of lower cost and higher quality healthcare – rapidly growing adoption of health information technology is a key lever in achieving that future. Achieving this goal; however, requires strategies and technologies for overcoming the problem of disparate”. In this article we will explore what unified data means within the healthcare industry and the challenges and benefits that your healthcare organization may be impacted by embracing unified data. 

What is Unified Data?

A unified data model brings together your healthcare organizations data from different sources into one centralized database, making it easier to analyze data. This concept is slowly being embraced by healthcare organizations, as the importance of data and value-based care increases. Unified data isn’t a trend that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon though. With that being said, with any change in the healthcare industry comes challenges and ultimately benefits as well.  

Challenges You May Face

Industry leaders are reluctant to embrace unified data because of the challenges that an organization may face. Some of these challenges include: 

1. Different data formats from different systems 
2. Changing industry standards
3. Finding the right time and resources to have unified data

Although embracing Unified Data may cause you to face these challenges, keep in mind the benefits far outweigh the challenges for both your healthcare organization and patients.

Benefits of Unified Data 

The reality is data is the future of healthcare. Unified data allows you to make not only smarter decisions but decisions based upon data provided to you through your unified data approach. Other benefits include:

1. Helps drive value in healthcare 
2. Identifies opportunity to reduces Cost 
3. Unlocks the value of complex healthcare data sets 
4. Provides you a full picture of a patient health care and cost 

Many organizations are aware of these benefits but don’t know where to start and truly leverage their own data. 

Prepare for the future

Simply put, you can make Smarter, Data-Driven Decisions with Unified Data. Unified data allows you to position your organization for success by leveraging your organization’s data from as many resources as possible. Primavera partners with healthcare organizations and their leads to do exactly that.

We have the power to integrate and process both your front-end EHR/EMR data and back-end Payers data as well. What does this mean? Our Analytics platform is able to provide a clear picture in real-time of your patient population risk, financial status, clinical gaps and patient gaps. This level of data integrity and unified data allows you to have a more proactive approach with your data and not to wait for outcomes to improve.  HealthCare’s embrace of data and value-based care is not going away, and Primavera is on a mission to work with you no matter where you are at in this journey. 

Reach out to our team to learn how we can help retrieve and analyze your healthcare organizations data! 

(888)-667-2219

[email protected]

Telemedicine supports and simplifies processes along a patient’s care continuum. Integrating with telemedicine also holds many benefits for physicians, their practices, and their growth. There are questions you need to ask to get started, how do you integrate, what kind of tools do you need, and how hard is telemedicine to maintain?

To answer, we’re going to break down telemedicine integration for a variety of practices and populations. Let’s get started!

Management Service Organization (MSO)

Managed care organizations are challenged with keeping taps on entire patient populations. The tasks before these organizations are largely data oriented and require the assessment and utility of managing and delegating patient data to support proactive care. 

Primavera features a data analytics solution with real-time data updates that help MSOs to act quickly, assess risk, and make the best decisions for each individual patent and practice.

Integration Tip

Find a telemedicine suite that can connect with multiple databases, and makes the adoption of existing records easy so you’re not weighed down by a clunky migration from your old methods to an optimized platform.

Primary Care Physicians

Primary Care Physicians may be connected with a large organization, or may provide through their own smaller practices. An integration need for these care-giving facilities is flexibility.

As you begin a care plan with your patients, we also start with a consultation. Explore our suite of features with an assessment. Do you need telehealth urgently to care for your remote patient population? Do you need the connectivity of an extensive platform? Or are you just getting your feet wet with data analytics and case management support?

Integration Tip

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Using telemedicine smartly is about integrating the features that meet your needs. You can always add as you grow.

Non-Profit Clinics

Not every practice or organization is given priority in this world. Telemedicine helps break down barriers by using software to create accessibility. 

Non-profit healthcare organizations face a lot of obstacles when it comes to managing their patient populations; employee resources, legal barriers, financial strain, and the situations of those they care for. A solution is intuitive Case Management.

Receive live feeds from hospitals, prioritization based on risk stratification, assign and communicate tasks and cases with case managers, and more.

Integration Tip

The Case Management solution you choose should be intelligent, but easy for your patients to use. Especially with underprivileged populations, convenience is a large part of care. For telemedicine to be effective, it has to be accessed with the simple touch of a button.

Cardiologists

The entire Primavera healthcare software suite can be widely used for a multitude of solutions to manage a patient population within a Cardiologist’s office. We do this through ease of use. Cardiology usually applies to an older population – a less tech savvy population – we’ve mentioned we make things simple with the touch of a button but how does that work?

We call it “Frictionless Telehealth” and it simplifies introductory appointments and follow ups through video and easy communication. 

Integration TIp

Keep your high-risk populations safe by keeping them at home. Use high resolution video, scheduled check-ins, share educational content, and continuously assess your patients health from a distance. The best part for these senior populations is that they don’t even need to download an app. Accessibility even applies to tech and cutting down on the installation requirements increases the level of care you can provide to all.

Mental Health Practitioners

Surprised to see mental health on this list? Traditionally, mental health sessions are done in person, how else can you accurately assess your patient? Like with cardiology, mental health patients require timely connection and the same resources apply. 

Utilize tools like high quality video and accessibility to maximize your patients’ communication with you. 

In May of 2020, CNBC reported that first-time downloads of the top 20 mental wellness apps in the U.S. hit 4 million in April of that same year, up 29 percent from 3.1 million downloads the previous January. 

Sometimes distance encourages communication, and younger populations especially feel more comfortable from behind a keyboard – Telemedicine can help you keep up with the changing times by adapting communication methods without compromising care. 

Telemedicine integrations decrease no-shows, will give you the ability to see more patients in a day, and give patients a feeling of security. 

Integration Checklist

There are many types of practices and organizations that we haven’t covered here which benefit from integrating with telemedicine. Whether you’re an oral health professional, allergist, orthopedist, dermatologist, or plastic surgeon – the benefits of telehealth apply to you.

When you’re looking for a smart solution ask yourself what you need.

• Easy installation
• Easy use for patients and providers
• A variety of features
• Smart data analytics
• Risk assessment and prioritization
• Case management support
• Connective and compatible with other tools and payment institutions
• Secure, safe, and compliant with all regulations
• A platform with robust capabilities and continued support
• Next Level Security

The best place to start is at the beginning. Reach out to us today for a demo and discover how we make providing care easier together.  

Better. Faster. Stronger. Perhaps chasing after the dream of The Six Million Dollar Man, technology has helped transform healthcare over the years with innovations from the iron lung to robotic surgeries but it has gone beyond the advancement of medicine and extended into the wider world of healthcare.

Using Technology to Communicate

We’ll kick this off with the obvious technology advancement. Communication and technology go hand in hand and it has transformed the way patients interact with their own care. Through telehealth tools, apps, notifications, video consultations, and educational platforms, technology has done for healthcare what it has done for entertainment – forged a pathway of instant access, and made it fit in the palm of your hand.

With the single touch of a button a patient can connect with their provider on urgent matters, but they can just as easily update their profiles, symptoms, and share their data. 

Communicating Data

Updating and exchanging data is another key communication – and this one has a few more requirements beyond being instant, it also needs to be:

• Secure
• Actionable
• Organized

Secure

Data security is at the forefront of most technology conversations and is especially important in healthcare where patient privacy is paramount.

When you’re looking to integrate the benefits of technology and telehealth into your practice, look for a platform that adheres to best practices for HIPAA compliance, has a bolstered approach to cyber security, and the infrastructure to maintain a next-level security experience with measures in place like:

•  Two Factor Authentication
•  Secure Socket Authentication
•  Encrypted Patient Data

Actionable

Actionable data means that data can be analyzed and applied to a system to structure and manage needs like risk assessment, tracking treatment and care continuums. It also means that submitted information can be utilized to manage third-party partnerships, external therapies and financial requirements. 

From managing multiple payers and practices to communicating data to pharmacies – being able to apply your data comes with many perks. 

There’s also the matter of patient populations to consider. Risk assessment within your practice is one thing, but being able to contribute data on population and patient types helps establish trends and inform the logistics and needs of your wider practice.

Organized

Data organization goes beyond “can I find it” and moves into “can it find me”. We’re talking about organization for automation and system optimization. With Primavera’s solution you can sit back while collected information automatically populates and updates as additional information comes in in real-time. 

Streamlining the way data is received contributes to its ease of organization. Simple and secure applications that are easy to use go a long way in making the entire data collection process as efficient and useful as possible. 

Assembling Resources

Technology doesn’t just improve the efficiencies and functions of healthcare, it expands its resources, and not just for practitioners and providers. We’ve talked before about how telehealth solutions make healthcare more accessible to rural communities – but they also increase the access to information which leads to better preventive care. 

From sharing informative articles, videos and information to vastly increasing accessibility between patients and providers, technology turns our digital resources into an actionable treatment protocol. 

Benefit Bullet List

Take a quick looks with us at a few ways technology assists care:

• Psychologists can more easily meet with their patients via virtual calls
• Physical therapists can meet with clients virtually or send interactive exercises
• Providers can quickly schedule transportation when needed
• Case managers can easily access their patient files anywhere they are needed 
• Data can be synced in real-time to be used in the most optimized way
• Nonprofits can remain organized and interact with up-to-date information for their populations
• Payers and financial institutions can be quickly managed for fast transactions and resolutions

Whether you’re a cardiologist or an allergist, technology is applicable to every facet of your practice, and Primavera implements it through smart telehealth solutions that manage and analyze your data securely while keeping the patient first.

Customized Care

In the same way that every treatment plan is tailored to each patient, every technological solution needs to be tailored to each practice. Factors like demographics, location, modality, and specialization contribute to each practice’s needs. 

Takeaways

Primavera was created by practitioners and we have a few supportive pillars:

Frictionless – Frictionless care is about easy connectivity and the sharing of information. In your search for a telehealth solution, make sure whatever you implement can be accessed by the most technology opposed patients you serve. If it’s harder than the touch of a button to connect then it’s too complicated.

Analysis – We’ve mentioned it already, but don’t skimp on your data analysis or data management capabilities.

Case Management – Find a solution that prioritizes data-based risk assessment, real-time updates, and efficient access to information and resources.

A Strong CMR – Implement a technology solution to organize the data of your patients and keep your database current. You also may want to find a solution that enhances record keeping with features like note dictation, data sorting, audits, and surveys.

No matter your requirements, customized tech for your healthcare organization’s needs is here and waiting for you to demo today. 

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!