Feature Articles

51. Four Ways To Address Data Management Challenges And Strengthen Your Revenue Cycle 11/22/2017

    Revenue cycle management can leverage systems and workflows that close gaps, tie up loose ends, and ensure submission of a clean claim. Reference data—representing the coded and uncoded data used across a health system—plays an all-important role in strategies that optimize revenue cycle processes and ensure compliance with industry licensing requirements.

52. SCL Health Gives Time Back To Doctors With Simplified IT Experience 11/3/2017

    As a $2.5 billion nonprofit healthcare network with 11 hospitals, 210 physician clinics, and home and hospice services throughout Colorado, Kansas and Montana, SCL Health supports more than 20,000 associates, physicians, clinical staff, students, contractors and consultants. This means that at any given moment, there are thousands of people who depend on the SCL Health IT network to access patient records, care for patients using an electronic medical record, and schedule and coordinate appointments. Since 2005, SCL Health has been in a strategic partnership with Citrix to facilitate and streamline its IT processes by simplifying how associates access data and systems so they can ultimately focus more time on patients.

53. Reducing Readmissions: How A Post-Discharge Phone Call Reduces Hospital Readmissions 10/31/2017

    Each year, approximately 16 percent of patients in United States hospitals are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. Readmissions and the additional treatments they entail are costly to both patients and insurers. Increasingly, they are costly to hospitals as well. A portion of readmissions are considered unavoidable, such as a planned readmission for chemotherapy, or an unexpected adverse event unrelated to the original diagnosis. However, many other readmissions are considered preventable through high quality clinical care and effective patient education and discharge procedures.

54. Effective Communications: Steps For Automating, Streamlining And Improving Healthcare Communications 10/31/2017

    The average 500-bed hospital in the United States loses $4 million each year directly due to inefficient communication, according to a study published in the Journal of Healthcare Management. Effective and efficient communication is essential to fulfilling a healthcare organization’s mission of providing high quality care. It is also crucial to eliminating unnecessary costs and maintaining an organization’s fiscal health.

55. McLaren Health Care Invests In Better Light 10/16/2017

    Offering $1.6M in annual savings, a Cree® LED lighting upgrade for McLaren Health Care’s 11 primary hospitals was a clear win for the balance sheet.

56. How Will MACRA Impact Your Payment Adjustment? 10/2/2017

    In early 2018, all clinicians must report performance data to CMS in three of four categories that count as a portion of the final composite score. A comparison of all composite scores above the pre-set performance threshold will determine the number of positive adjustments that will be issued. Will your adjustment be negative or positive?

57. Getting It Right: Plan And Implement A Mobile Device Strategy That Works 10/2/2017

    Incorporating mobile devices into standard communication workflows in most health systems typically starts as a bottom-up effort by physicians and user groups who want the convenience and efficiencies that go hand-in-hand with mobile devices. Some have even said that mobility is the next battleground for patient engagement. Although those user groups must garner the buy-in and support of the executive management team, getting everyone to agree that technology creates valuable efficiencies and simplifies communication is generally not the holdup. Uncovering and analyzing all the possible options, weighing the pros and cons, and settling on the best mobile device strategy for each organization can be the longest steps in the process.

58. Journey To Value: The State Of Value Based Reimbursement 9/18/2017

    Value-Based Payment Hits The Tipping Point: Second in a series of national research studies on healthcare’s transition from volume to value.

59. Reinventing Claims Payment For A Value Based World 9/18/2017

    The U.S. healthcare industry’s claims-payment system is frustrating to providers, payers, and patients alike. Inefficiency and a systemwide tendency for error wastes precious resources, worsens miscommunication and mistrust among all stakeholders, and inhibits the ability to transition to value-based approaches that achieve better outcomes. We need to rethink our industry’s disjointed and siloed approach in order to solve a very integrated problem.

60. Three Reasons DSM-5 Mapping Strategies Matter 9/11/2017

    The introduction of industry standards such as SNOMED CT, ICD-10, LOINC, and RxNorm is an important step toward achieving the goals of interoperability and information sharing. Yet healthcare organizations still face notable challenges to laying the best frameworks for normalizing data to these standards. Since there is no one standard that addresses all healthcare information, clinical and financial data must be “cleaned” and appropriately mapped to a single source of truth to remove semantic ambiguity.