Care Coordination Innovation

Would you buy an iPhone if the only apps that ran on it were written by Apple?   Maybe, but the functionality would not be very diverse.The same can be said of EHRs.   Athena, Cerner, Epic, Meditech, and self developed EHRs such as BIDMC’s webOMR are purpose-built transaction engines for capturing data.  However, it is impossible for any single vendor to provide all the innovation required by the marketplace to support new models of care  I’m a strong believer in the concept of third party modules that layer on top of traditional EHRs in the same way that apps run in the iPhone ecosystem.There are 3 such companies doing important care coordination work in Massachusetts and we’re expecting a wide rollout of their cloud hosted modules that tightly couple with EHRs, but are not authored by EHR companies.The Right Place, is an electronic referral and bed management platform that expedites the placement of hospitalized patients to post-acute facilities that can deliver needed services.  Unlike tools which push patient information downstream to providers, The Right Place functions more like OpenTable and Match.com.  It supports discharge planners, patient/families and post-acute care facilities by providing a “front end” solution for case managers to search/match and a “back end” bed and referral management solution for the post acute care facility.  Together, these tools provide real time data to providers on both ends that can impr...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs