Physician engagement is one of the most important factors affecting the success of a Clinical Quality Improvement (CQI) program. Unfortunately, it is sometimes a challenge to get physicians on-board, so in this week’s Wellcentive Blog I will talk about how you can help your physicians get with the program!
Welcome back to the Wellcentive Blog. Today, I am going to discuss how sharing data can help facilitate care collaboration, improve outcomes, and decrease workload in the physician office setting. Let’s spend a little time talking about what to share, how to share, and why you want to share.
Let’s talk a little about care collaboration and data sharing in this blog post and in the next one as well. I suspect some readers are thinking that working together and sharing sounds a little like something you learned in kindergarten, but they really are important for optimizing outcomes. This topic is also worth spending some time on, because most physicians aren’t used to collaborating and working in a team environment.
In our last post we outlined the benefits available for the physician who embraces quality-focused care. The question we left you with was, “What can I do right now to prepare my practice for engagement of these new CQI programs?” I think the answer is simple: you need to define your goals first, before you put in practice a plan to reach them.
Let’s start this blog series off by talking about what I believe is a fundamental requirement for a successful clinical quality improvement (CQI) program: Ambulatory clinical quality improvement programs need to be driven by physicians and their staff members if maximum improvements are to be seen.
Now, I realize that there are many companies out there hired by payers and employers to improve outcomes and cut healthcare costs, and they must be doing something of value. But I think most of you will agree that patients want their own physicians to manage and coordinate their care, not some stranger at a company they have never heard of. That’s certainly been my experience over the last 12 or 13 years, and I haven’t seen much benefit to my patients when outsiders are involved.
In fact, lately we’re hearing more and more from our payer partners that they are seeing suboptimal results from the CQI programs they administer. We are also hearing that these same insurers are putting more emphasis on engaging the physician and his or her office staff in the CQI process. Pay for Performance (P4P), Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Meaningful Use, Accountable Care, etc. are all payer-sponsored programs intended to financially reward physicians for providing higher quality care.
“So, what? What’s in it for me?”
As a continuation of my first post, here’s an outline of the topics we plan to cover on the Wellcentive Blog. Stay tuned for information on some of the most pressing issues for providers, their organizations, and other members of the healthcare community.
Paul D. Taylor, M.D., WellCentive Chief Medical Information Officer
Welcome to the new Wellcentive blog. Our goal is to provide valuable insights based on real-world experience that will help you and your organization improve your clinical and financial outcomes and better serve your patients and physicians.
Wellcentive’s solutions were developed to meet the practical, day-to-day needs of physicians like me and to enable healthcare organizations like mine to proactively and effectively implement and administer clinical quality programs. Wellcentive is a noted innovator and leader in the maturing healthcare intelligence market space, and our staff members have deep and highly relevant experience helping our clients improve clinical quality and financial performance at the physician, physician group, physician organization, and community levels.
Our software was originally designed and built by healthcare providers for healthcare providers. We have continued to listen carefully to our customers’ needs, and our solutions have evolved as our customers have tackled the ever-changing healthcare landscape head-on. Thousands of physicians use our software to care for tens of millions of patients and our interface platform exchanges millions of messages each week. Our customers include some of the most prestigious physician groups and organizations, healthcare systems, health information exchanges, employer groups, professional organizations, and HIT vendors in the country.
As a practicing internal medicine physician and Chair of my own PHO’s Clinical Integration Committee, and as Wellcentive’s Chief Medical Information Officer I will be leading this effort, however we will have other members of our team participate as well. You’ll also hear an occasional word from one of our customers or partners.
Through this blog, we will share some of our knowledge, best practices, and practical insights, which we hope will be beneficial for you and the patients you serve. We realize that software and technology are only a part of the story. It’s what you do with the software and how you use the technology that really matters.
Content will be updated frequently, so please keep an eye on the WellCentive Blog. Share it with friends and colleagues, and don’t forget to jump in and share any comments or feedback you have as well. We all need to collaborate in order to provide high-quality, cost-effective healthcare, and we are looking forward to helping build a real community and enabling an ongoing dialog with our readers.
