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HIMSS 15 recap: Transforming the business of healthcare

Many of our discussions at HIMSS this year focused on the business of healthcare and its shift from a fee-for-service volume-based model to a fee-for-value outcomes-based model. This transition brings data management and utility to the forefront of an organization’s strategy.

When entering into an outcomes-based agreement, whether a government or commercial payer, and becoming responsible for a patient’s health regardless of setting, organizations will need to evaluate information both internally and externally. Whether the information originates from the patient or from an Electronic Medical Record, it has become clear that the installation of a multi-million dollar EMR solution does not necessarily fulfill the need for a comprehensive clinical, financial, and administrative patient view.

 

ONX HIMSS

One of the keys to making the volume-to-value-based transition is an organization’s ability to use their data to make decisions. For years, healthcare organizations have been leveraging data warehouse technologies using structured data for retrospective decision making. The challenge now is incorporating unstructured, semi-structured, and machine generated data – like nursing and physician notes, written discharge instructions, home health wearable outputs, and images. Being able to ingest this information with the right infrastructure will go a long way towards making all data types usable not only in a retrospective fashion, but at the point of care as well.

Better clinical and financial outcomes will not be an easy journey for the healthcare industry. It will not happen overnight, but it is a journey worth making. Using technology and gathering data to successfully navigate that journey continues to be an important part of the process. Helping our clients to evaluate the right technology to build a solid data strategy and foundation to transform the business of healthcare is the heart of what we do.