Today's Practice: Changing the Business of Medicine National Edition Q1 2018 | Page 35

POPULATION HEALTH SERIES
Why Effective PHM
Requires a Real-Time
Clinical Perspective
By Pranam Ben, founder and CEO, The Garage
Clinical laboratories have been an essential component of safe and effective care delivery
since at least the early 20th Century. Yet only in recent years have healthcare providers
begun to explore ways to leverage that clinical lab data, along with numerous other types
of information, to manage populations of at-risk patients — even prevent potential adverse
health events.
Effectively managing patient populations is important for clinical integrated networks
(CINs) not just because it is in the best interest of patients, but also because it can deliver
financial dividends to the organization. As hospital and health system profit margins
continue to shrink, driven by greater expenses, CINs and other provider organizations
need to explore new methods to deliver care efficiently and reduce costly care interven-
tions.
The key is to capture the widest scope of available timely data from multiple sources,
especially clinical labs, and then analyzing that information to monitor populations and
intervene when a potential negative outcome is identified. When properly deployed,
organizations can decrease costly emergency department care and readmissions while
improving adherence to providers’ treatment plans. Both of these population health
management improvements can drive increased reimbursement under value-based
payment models.
TODAY’S PRA C T I C E: C HA NGI NG T HE BUS I NES S OF M EDI CINE
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