Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/289185
31 Executive Briefing: Accountable Care Many hospitals and health systems are taking the steps to make their environments more patient-centered. Several larger systems have added positions like chief customer officers to their C-suites. Organizations have also made changes to their facilities based on patient experience survey data, such as quieting recovery rooms, as many patients indicate having a quiet area positively impacts their recovery. Gathering necessary data Those are important steps to take, but provider organizations that want to function as accountable care organizations and truly man- age the health of a specific population need to do more to person- alize care. "[It] requires that we're able to engage [with patients] at a very individual level and plan and manage a relationship with them that is based on their situation," Mr. Auer explains. For ACOs to tailor services directly to the individual, they need data. A lot of necessary information comes from clinical and claims data, gathered from electronic health records and payers. How- ever, a patient's health is influenced by a lot more than what can be seen on an EHR or through claims data. "The challenge for providers becomes planning care services around more than just clinical data," Mr. Auer says. "A patient's socioeconomic status, family information and care preferences become important for ACOs to consider when making patient care plans. For example, providers in an ACO need to know if a patient will have trouble paying for a prescription or has no way of getting to an appointment across town." Borrowing from other industries Gathering and organizing this kind of nonclinal data on patients has not historically been the norm in the healthcare industry. Oth- er industries, especially in the commercial space, however, have been doing so for years. Since ACOs need to know more about their patients than ever before, they can borrow this approach from industries that have nearly perfected it through utilizing customer relationship manage- ment software. Tribridge adapted a Microsoft product, Dynamics CRM, for the healthcare space, creating the Tribridge Care Coor- dination solution. "It's targeted to enable ACO operations, work- flow and effectiveness of care managers and the patients with whom they need to personally engage," Mr. Auer says. When ACO care managers are equipped with CRM software, care coordination becomes much easier. It's their job to interact directly with and better coordinate, plan and care for specific indi- viduals, and CRM software can be their "toolbox," he says. How it helps The technology can stratify a population that the ACO may want to target for a specific care program, such as those at risk for type-2 diabetes. Once the population is identified, it enables care managers or navigators to reach out to individual patients and work with them personally, developing a care plan based on their preferences. Information about the patient's preferences, living and family situations can be captured and accessible at the navigator's fingertips.