The OACHC Informer

Ohio’s HIT Strategy and You

Planning your health information technology strategy 

Guest Blog brought to you by InXite Health Systems (www.inxitehealth.com)

 

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” 

--Wayne Gretzky

With the transformation occurring in healthcare, it’s easy to find yourself in reaction mode, just to survive the onslaught of changes effecting all aspects of your business. Success, however, is dependent on being able to anticipate where things are heading and get out ahead of future changes; switching from reactive to proactive mode.

As a leader of your health center you understand the importance of insight and strategic planning in anticipating future developments and setting your organization up for success. With an intensified focus on quality of care and the rapidly increasing data, analytics and reporting requirements, Health Information Technology (HIT) considerations are likely to feature heavily in any strategic planning discussions. In the spirit of “skating to where the puck is going to be,” we wanted to share some information you might find helpful.

The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation released its preliminary draft of Ohio’s Health Information Technology Strategy in May 2015. Included in this strategy are 7 themes related to HIT and their associated desired outcomes when the strategy is effectively implemented. We’ve highlighted the outcomes we believe to be most relevant to community health centers (highlighted in red) and have described them below.  

We’ve also developed a HIT Checklist for Strategic Planning (access it here for free).

Adapted from Governor’s Office of Health Transformation HIT Strategy

Click here to download our edited version of Ohio’s Preliminary HIT Strategy.

1. Rewarding Value: As the entire nation moves from Fee for Service to Value Based Care the State of Ohio has also adopted this transformation into its HIT strategy. FQHCs are rewarded for delivering patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

2. Performance Transparency: There is increasing demand from patients, advocates, government agencies and others for greater access to performance data about provider quality, costs, and outcomes.  This trend will only increase as CMS moves to its Merit-based Incentive Program System (MIPS).

3. Care Coordination: For the last several years there has been ongoing efforts to recognize and promote care coordination through new models (e.g., Patient Centered Medical Home) and payments (Transitional Care Management). Different types of clinicians, inside and outside the FQHC, will have unfettered access to necessary patient records and collaborate to deliver care.

4. Operational Efficiency: Reducing costs throughout the value chain via process streamlining, automation, etc.  To promote operational efficiency, healthcare organizations are adopting many of the same tools (e.g., Lean and Six Sigma, Information Technology, Automation, etc.) used to improve value chains in other industries. 

5. Non-clinical Decisions: Applying the same level of analysis and understanding to non-clinical decisions as you would clinical decisions. Policy and business decisions should be driven by a full understanding of relevant information and consistent use of advanced analytics.

6. Clinical Decisions: Clinicians must have robust support -data, tools, coaching, etc. that are available to consistently make optimal decisions.

7. Patient Engagement: Engagement around lifestyle, diet, socio-economic determinants and more.  Care for patients can no longer be relegated to the scheduled office visit but must be more encompassing and more connected to the patient’s daily activities. 

Staying at the forefront of healthcare as the industry rapidly transforms is an uphill battle, and we want to provide you with a tool that will make your strategic planning easier.

We’ve created a free HIT Checklist for Strategic Planning that can be used to help determine where you currently sit and what areas you need to improve. These 7 themes each serve their purpose in a holistic approach to HIT improvement and to ultimately bettering the quality of patient care and health outcomes.

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James Paat is the CEO of InXite Health Systems (www.inxitehealth.com), a healthcare innovation company 100% focused on operationalizing and optimizing patient centered care coordination. He has 25 years of experience helping global 1000 companies and government agencies integrate data and share information.