Healthcare moves quickly. Whether inspired by clinical advancement, enabled by technical innovation, or pressured by market forces, provider organizations are under constant vigilance to keep up with emerging trends. Central to their survival is the ability to rapidly innovate by trying new care models, contracting methods, and operational workflows designed to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction. Faced with these pressures, Providence St. Joseph Health built an innovation platform connecting nearly 10 million lives, thousands of physicians, 14+ hospitals, and more than 2,500 community providers to serve its competitive California and Texas markets.
The core of the innovation platform is the connected health record, powered by InterSystems, which complements the enterprise and community’s various EHRs. It enables users to access data from encounters across the community, regardless of where it is created or stored. This strengthens strategic provider relationships and improves patient care by offering that same community record to other providers, regardless of EHR. More importantly, it lowers the barriers to clinical integration and opens the door to more innovation.
Building the connected health record requires a strong organizational framework, commitment from leadership to support growth, and the ability to create attractive services to solve existing problems – there is no ‘Build it and they will come’. Once a critical mass of providers and community partners became connected, PSJH had a base from which to start innovation.
Innovation requires strong governance, business sponsorship, and professional leadership dedicated not only to technical care and feeding, but to constant engagement and interaction with caregivers, business sponsors, and the external vendor innovation community.
With the organization and staff in place, PSJH is now able to innovate rapidly, with a strong product management function in place to navigate through requests, coordinate proof-of-concepts, pilots, and full releases. PSJH is innovating in several areas, such as the delivery of advanced alerts & notifications for specific attributed patient populations, development of performance improvement dashboards designed to support CIN network executives and individual MIPS performance, and condition-specific community-wide provider portal views for providers and care management teams.
Join us at HIMSS18, where we will be presenting “Beyond the EHR: Continuous Innovation for the Transition to Value Based Care”with our partners, PSJH and InterSystems. There will two opportunities to hear the presentation.
To learn more about how Himformatics works with clients on similar programs, our “lessons learned”, or other efforts to deliver healthcare in a way that makes a difference, please visit us at http://himformatics.com/contact/.
About the Author
Matt Simon is the Director of Interoperability and Innovation engagements for Himformatics, a health care advisory firm. Matt works with senior executives to define and implement strategies focused on achieving transformational success in community connectivity and population health initiatives. Matt has over 20 years of experience working with health systems, HIEs and technology vendors across the country. To share your story, contact Matt at msimon@himformatics.com or www.linkedin.com/in/simonmatt.
