Healthcare leaders are often looking for ways to improve care workflows, reduce administrative burden, and drive better patient outcomes. However, cumbersome EHR processes and incomplete data have added friction for providers and prevented teams from making clinically-relevant, cost-effective care decisions. What’s necessary are different-in-kind solutions that can make a meaningful impact at the point-of-care and can create a culture of informed decision-making when it matters most.
Below, we outline four tips for driving more information to the point-of-care, in a way that promotes informed decision-making efforts:
1. Integrate tools where they can have the most impact.
Decision-support tools are only effective if they are available when providers need them most. By integrating these solutions directly into care workflows (within the EHR), providers can view previously inaccessible data with little-to-no extra clicks.
While patient and care team portals allow much-needed access to data, in most cases, providers are still required to approve important care decisions – making point-of-care tools essential in cost, coverage, and condition-specific conversations.
2. Focus on data accuracy.
In many cases, EHR-integrated tools require training to use. Vendors should offer ongoing support for leaders, providers, and IT teams to reinforce the value of their solutions and update teams on new functionality. It is important to understand what support is needed – and offered – before selecting a tool to implement.
In addition to bringing accurate data to the point-of-care, retrospective behavior-change reporting can help teams understand where there are ongoing opportunities to reduce administrative burden (i.e. prior authorization) and patient costs. By encouraging, tracking, and rewarding ideal behaviors, providers will feel compelled to make the best decisions on behalf of their patients.
4. Support policy and better align incentives to encourage high-value care.
Currently, when patients stay healthy, payers are the primary beneficiary. There continues to be an opportunity to shift that value to providers, as they are best equipped to impact patient outcomes. Price transparency tools, in particular, can help care teams better manage risk, and participate in cost-based incentive models.
Additionally, interoperability and price transparency policy are helping drive open access to data, which enables providers to have informed conversations at the point-of-care. Supporting these initiatives can improve a health system’s brand, attract new patients, and allow for data-driven, low-cost care delivery.
RxRevu understands that providers cannot realistically remember all of the details about each patient’s coverage – or what specific services cost. Instead, teams need to be able to access accurate, real-time data to make the most informed clinical and financial decisions with their patients. We’ve seen that integrating patient-specific decision-support tools can increase a provider’s willingness to change their behaviors, and empower them with valuable insights that have a meaningful impact on patient health, care workflows, and the overall cost of care.
To learn more about how RxRevu can help create a culture of informed decision-making at your organization, please reach out today.
As seen on Fierce Healthcare.
