Maximizing Patient Care Through Technology

Written by on March 18, 2014 in Technology - No comments | Print this page


Medical technologyThe increasing role of technology and the Internet within society has made it much easier for people working in the medical field to share critical data in order to keep patients healthy.

With this in mind, population health management was created as a resource to assist physicians with the process of coordinating care delivery with a wide variety of other doctors so that each of them can improve the outcomes of their demand management, care management and disease management.

In other words, this program increases each participant’s ability to offer top-notch care to all of their patients. There are many major perks when utilizing population health management.


1. Increased Care Management

Sharing information regarding morbidity patterns with a large group of physicians enables each user to more accurately predict how each specific disease will impact the anticipated lifespan of their patients, and it will also make it easier for medical professionals to assess their financial risk.

Taking the predictive management approach has been proven to assist doctors with the process of proactively managing the necessary care for all of their highest risk patients, and this can improve the quality of care that is offered and enhance a patient’s odds of survival.

2. Improve the Level of Patient Engagement

One of the staples of using population health management is encouraging a higher level of patient engagement through the usage of a patient portal, surveys and outreach. The portal will give each patient the opportunity to learn more about their medical history, and it will also offer them access to useful materials to help them better manage their condition.

The outreach portion of this program helps identify each patient who needs to come in for an appointment for continual care, and it also tracks patient follow-up and compliance. Surveys are utilized to gather data from patients regarding their level of satisfaction with the care that they have received.

3. Enhances the Process of Sharing Data

It is often necessary to share administrative, financial and clinical data with several vendors and HIT systems, but this process has been cumbersome in the past. Fortunately, population health management helps streamline this process, so it will be much easier to efficiently send and receive up-to-date, accurate and complete data.

4. Provides You with Robust Reporting Capabilities

Most medical professionals deal with an extensive list of patients on a regular basis, and this can make it complicated to ensure that everyone receives the type of care that is necessary. Fortunately, the population health management approach includes a robust reporting system that will enable each physician to completely customize the data that is represented on each report they use so that they can more effectively track their patients’ needs and determine the best course of treatment action to take for each situation. Additionally, these reports have the ability to offer an extensive look at the financial analytics of each physician, physician practice and health system.

Other benefits of switching to population health management include easier physician engagement for quality-based reimbursement programs such as PCMH, Accountable Care, PQRS, Pay-For-Performance and Meaningful Use.

In fact, it will be much easier to collect and provide the critical performance data that is necessary in order to negotiate reimbursements, and you will also have the opportunity to increase your preventative care and optimize your performance by analyzing the financial and clinical data that is collected.

In other words, population health management is one of the most effective methods for helping patients and physicians meet each of their medically related goals. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to begin exploring this option today.

Lisa Coleman shares the perks of how population health management can help maximize care. She researched at to help her obtain some of the information to complete this article.

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