Are Automated Calls As Effective As Nurse Follow Up?
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Automated care coordination may be cheaper and more effective than having nurses make calls to patients.
A recent study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, finds the use of automated calls for follow up and care coordination is far less expensive and perhaps even more effective than tasking nurses to make calls to patients. “Driven by the value-based and financial implications of healthcare reform, providers have begun to transform their delivery structure, emphasizing the shift from inpatient to ambulatory settings and managing patients in an appropriate setting along the care continuum,” explain researchers.
Health IT Analytics reports that, two years after implementation, the use of an interactive voice response (IVR) system ended up costing around $9,000 less than nurse-initiated telephone calls while producing higher overall cost savings.
Researchers compared the impact of the automated system with the time and effort for a nurse to prepare for and place a phone call to a patient who had recently experienced an ambulatory visit for an acute condition. They estimated that 65 percent of calls would be answered. They found that it takes only about three minutes for a human nurse to review a patient’s file and prepare for the phone call, yet it takes five to six minutes for the actual call.
The study assumed that if an average practice has 4,800 patients yearly and the average per minute rate of a nurse is $0.51, just preparing the call costs $1.44 per patient, and $6,900 per year. The cost of the actual call is about $2.57 more per patient. Although initial implementation of an automated system can cost $20,000, there are no additional charges for each patient call and maintenance is minimal.
“The results from this study align well with the incentive structure under the new payment models introduced in an accountable care environment, because the cost savings generated by follow-up/monitoring interventions benefit both the payers and the providers,” the study concludes. “While the providers incur the operational expenses of conducting the follow-up, follow-up and monitoring practices enable providers to better manage their high-risk patients, prevent rising-risk patients from becoming high-risk, and keep low-risk patients healthy.”