Becker's Hospital Review

24 PATIENT EXPERIENCE Barely 20% of providers have a consumer-centric strategy in place: 4 things to know By Andrea Park W hile there is no doubt the health- care industry is shiing toward a more consumer-focused perspec- tive, both providers and payers are moving slowly in adapting to that shi, according to a report from Change Healthcare and the HealthCare Executive Group. Here are four takeaways about consumeriza- tion from the 10th annual Industry Pulse Re- port, which surveyed nearly 450 healthcare leaders from payer, provider and third-party vendor organizations. 1. Only 24 percent of payers and less than 20 percent of providers surveyed said they have a "full consumer-centric strategy" in place. About 70 percent of each group said their organizations are in the process of imple- menting "nascent or intermediate consum- er-centric strategies." 2. All of the payer leaders surveyed said their organizations have at least some formal con- sumer-focused strategy in place or in prog- ress, but 14 percent of providers admitted to having no such strategy whatsoever. 3. Within the increasing focus on consumer- ism, survey respondents gave payers the edge in terms of being best positioned to provide cost and quality data to consumers. Provid- ers, meanwhile, were overwhelmingly seen as most able to support consumers through their healthcare journeys. 4. As for how those consumerization strat- egies will play out, the three non-clinical improvements highlighted by respondents as most important for driving consum- er satisfaction were online appointment scheduling, translating medical information into layman's terms and providing consumer access to EHRs and provider notes. n Why Tampa General is bringing back house calls By Mackenzie Bean P atients at Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital can now get check-ups in their own homes, reported NBC affiliate WFLA. The hospital rolled out its Urgent Care at Home initiative in late October 2019 through a partnership with Fast Track Urgent Care. Through the service, Tampa General patients can request an at-home consultation with a clinician daily be- tween 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. The cost is $199 per visit. Clinicians offer services similar to those of urgent care centers, including treatments for cough, sore throat or urinary tract infections. Clinicians can also provide some testing and diagnostic services for illnesses such as the flu or strep throat. "We're bringing back house calls," Paul Nanda, MD, CMO of TGH Urgent Care, told WFLA. "I think if you go back histor- ically, a lot of care used to be delivered in the home setting. … We're trying to reinvent something and come back full circle to offer patient convenience." n Dying patients' wishes ignored nearly 40 percent of time, study finds By Anuja Vaidya N early 40 percent of chronic disease patients nearing the end of life who had physician orders limiting treatment received intensive care that was inconsistent with those orders, according to a study pub- lished in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Patients with chronic illness frequently use physician's orders for life-sus- taining treatment to document their wishes with regard to end-of-life care. For the study, researchers examined 1,818 chronic illness patients at a two-hospital academic health system who died between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2017. The patients were hospitalized for up to six months before they died. Of the 1,818 patients: • 401 had physician's orders for "comfort measures only" • 761 had orders for "limited additional interventions" • 656 had orders for full treatment Researchers found 31 percent of patients with comfort-only orders, 46 percent of patients with limited-interventions orders and 62 percent with full-treatment orders were admitted to the intensive care unit. Among patients with comfort-only and limited-interventions order, 38 percent received ICU care not in line with their orders. Researchers also found patients admitted for traumatic injuries were significantly more likely to receive care against their orders. Howev- er, cancer patients were more likely to receive care in line with their physician's orders. n

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