As we've all been discussing at the National Health IT Week celebration, Healthcare is in the midst of a historic transformation, forced to address cost-containment challenges imposed by a variety of factors from new incentive structures to an increasingly consumer-driven marketplace.
Our nirvanaÖour island oasisÖour desired end-stateÖis a value-based healthcare delivery system.
This would not only drive down costs for health plans and individuals, but result in better overall health for across populations. To achieve lower costs and better quality, we must provide coordinated care which:
- Engages Members through effective marketing and communications strategies
- Empowers Providers with all the tools and data to make the best care decisions possible
- Enables health plans to learn from and improve this process on an ongoing basis.
It is new technology solutions that will make this transformation possible.
Of course, it's never that simple. And, the challenges facing us on this journey are not insignificant.
- The only thing that is constant is change itself. For Healthcare in particular this is especially true: from the regulations that govern the industry to the continuous medical advances and insight that inform and evolve care delivery.
- The changing economic and market realities demand that health plans innovate with new models and products.
- And, all of these efforts are stymied by organizational silos that impede visibility into the end-to-end process. This visibility is essential to the continuous improvement that enables and fosters a value-based approach.
So how cantechnology help? Rapid development of process and data-centric applications that can be easily changed to meet evolving realities are at the core. Applications that just work on any device. Applications that unify process, systems, and data from across an institution.
Let me give you a practical example. A major national health plan needed to overcome some significant obstacles in order to deliver patient-centric, coordinated, data-driven care to its Members. They wanted to use the data available to them from all resources to identify the best care path. They wanted to better inform their customers of and encourage them to participate and make the best health choices. They wanted to have the ability to monitor and continually adjust the recommended care path as realities change over the lifecycle of their member's health.
Using agile, iterative development methods this organization is transforming these goals into reality, using technology to improve relationships with individual members and better manage care. Rather than replacing core systems, they are converging them on a BPM application platform to gain more benefit from them. By unifying these systems as part of automated processes, each of these systems now better informs the process at exactly the right point. The returns garnered by this approach run the gamut from administrative efficiencies to ultimately, the better health of their members.
With National Health IT Week coming to a close, let's keep the dialogue open and flowing. Health IT will continue to transform this industry. Personally, I am excited to be a part of it!
Christina Fisher,Healthcare Solutions
This is the finalpost in the Appian National Health IT Week Series. Read earlier posts here:
- Happy National Health IT Week: An Appian BPM in Healthcare Series
