Becker's Hospital Review

41 Health IT K eeping a close watch on population health is more important for hospitals now than ever before, as they pursue value-based frame- works, take on more responsibility for patient outcomes outside the hospital and work to understand the factors that contribute to readmis- sions and failed care. The following 11 hospitals and health systems across the country have put health information technology to work for population health management in successful and innovative ways. 1. Children's Hospital of Alabama (Birmingham) Improving referral care by decreasing image corruption Goal: To create a stable image-viewing solution to improve referral-based care in the third-largest children's hospital in the country. Solution: Having experienced problems with viewing images from referrals, Children's adopted the cloud-based Nuance PowerShare Network to view the 20 percent of images that were previously unusable, corrupted or unreadable, causing workflow disruptions to physicians and necessitating extra scans for patients. The system was first put in place in the emergency room. Outcome: After implementing the system, Children's experienced a 60 percent decrease in corrupted referral images. Following success in the ED implementation, the solution was implemented institution-wide, and physi- cians often use the mobile capability, streamlining patient care. In addition, Children's has been successful in having referring organizations join them on the network. 2. Children's National Health System (Washington, D.C.) Geospatial mapping of local kids' public health risks Goal: To better understand the patterns of child health and wellness in the areas Children's National serves and identify factors associated with the pop- ulation's risk of illness. Solution: The system assembled a team of programmers, analysts and clini- cians to identify data sources and populations of interest. Then, the team used geospatial mapping software to analyze socioeconomic and environ- mental variables behind three of pediatrics' biggest public health problems, including childhood obesity. Outcome: Children's National is using its broader understanding of the fac- tors leading to childhood illness and hospital readmissions to shape health interventions and educational opportunities for kids. The program has been so successful that the system plans to expand it to other conditions in 2015. 3. Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center ACO saves millions after setting up care coordination system Goal: To put a system in place to support this early ACO's cost and qual- ity goals, including care coordination among sites and automated workflow processes. Solution: In 2012, HackensackUMC put together a selection committee to choose a care coordination solution and ended up settling on EPIC and TEAM of Care Solutions to support their integration needs in creating value, achieving return on investment and achieving a single patient view. Outcomes: After recognizing and tackling the need for coordinated care across the continuum and within the institution, HackensackUMC's ACO saved $10.75 million, half of which is to be shared with the hospital and its ACO, making HackensackUMC one of the few early and successful ACOs in the country. 4. Integrated Health Network of Wisconsin (Brookfield, Wis.) Proprietary tools to track and manage high-risk patients during care transitions Goal: To establish the functional equivalent of "interoperability" in order to maximize effective management of patients moving within and among Inte- grated Health Network's member health systems. Solution: Integrated Health Network created a centralized data warehouse, shared patient registries, a common care model and collaborative clinical leadership to encourage consistency, track performance and improve care coordination. IHN CMOs and other clinical leaders used common analytics, national standards, and their collective experience to create a common ap- proach focusing on early intervention and health improvement for high-risk populations. Outcome: Since implementation of the solutions, IHN has generated re- duced readmissions rates and lowered use of emergency department services across its member organizations. In addition, care navigation services direct- ed by data have increased patient medication safety and appropriate patient primary care visits. 5. MemorialCare Health System and MemorialCare Medical Group in Southern California (Fountain Valley, Calif.) Adopting preventive analytics to keep patients healthy and avoid illness Goal: To analyze patients' health needs accurately enough to predict what their future health needs might be — and then prevent the need for unneces- sary care, improving health outcomes and resource use. Solution: MemorialCare dug deep into its EHR system to harness data ana- lytics capabilities. In addition, the system began to build out its patient portal as a supplemental, patient-facing tool, helping engage patients in their care even as the system analyzed the type of care they might need next. Outcome: The system now has the ability to quickly and more easily identify history of illness, chronic disease diagnoses, socioeconomic factors impacting health and potential interventions customized to improve health outcomes after care. In addition, this information has allowed the system to accurately create cohorts of patients, driving savings and allowing bulk interventions, all within the construct of the system's EHR . Through coordinated efforts, Me- morialCare currently has about 200,000 patients on its patient-facing portal. 6. North Shore-LIJ Health System (Great Neck, N.Y.) Harnessing data integration technologies to support care coordination for com- plex, high-risk patients. 11 Hospitals & Health Systems Making Health IT Work for Population Health By Ellie Rizzo From implementing simple tracking systems to launching complex software solutions, these hospitals are making proactive moves in population health management.

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