There's no question that the past few years have been challenging for the healthcare sector. Now is the time, however, for organizations to look forward and proactively develop plans to support staff, patients, and providers, while also drive for better operating performance.
Becker's ASC Review recently spoke with Terry Ross, Enovis™ President of Bracing & Supports, and Mike Edwards, Enovis Vice President of Healthcare Solutions, about the technology and automated software solutions that leading orthopedic clinics and ASCs are adopting to ensure their practices are ready for the future.
Leveraging technology to increase patient throughput and deliver positive outcomes
Healthcare leaders recognize patients as their most important area of focus. At the same time, however, overseeing business needs like inventory management, reimbursement, price transparency and staff shortages are top priorities. Significant opportunities exist for orthopedic clinics and ASCs to leverage automation to address these issues - but choosing the right solution can be daunting.
"The market is saturated with disparate systems and fragmented offerings and making the wrong decision can cost you even more time and money," Mr. Ross said. "Business partners and solutions must solve real problems. The goal is to empower staff to maximize their roles and deliver a clear return."
Enovis is the new company name for DJO Global®, the provider of orthopedic solutions like DonJoy® and Aircast® bracing; Altivate® shoulder, EMPOWR™ knee and hip, STAR® ankle devices; and Chattanooga® rehabilitation equipment. Enovis is unique in that it is both a software and a product technology company. It delivers clinically differentiated solutions that generate measurably better patient outcomes and transform workflows across the continuum of care. Enovis' MotionMD® platform streamlines a variety of functions, ranging from patient selection (with OaraScore® risk stratification tool) to inventory management, claims processing, benefits verification (with VeriPro® price transparency), saving time and energy for providers.
Safely expanding the number of candidates suitable for outpatient procedures in the ASC
Today's patients are highly engaged in their health and wellness. They want to participate actively in decisions about their care and many prefer to have orthopedic procedures in an outpatient setting. To confidently migrate patients to the ASC, providers can use OaraScore, which is part of the Enovis MotionMD platform.
OaraScore is a predictive arthroplasty risk-assessment tool that analyzes nine comorbidity cohorts to determine whether a patient is well suited for rapid discharge. Surgeons can evaluate individuals based on issues related to hematology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, neurology, renal, urology, pulmonology, and infectious diseases.
"By examining multiple aspects of a patient's medical and social history, OaraScore® allows surgeons to safely extend their population for outpatient surgery to a wider group of individuals who may have medical issues, but are stable enough to pursue outpatient surgery," Mr. Edwards said.
A retrospective study published in the Journal of Arthroplasty found that OaraScore for primary total joint arthroplasty has more precise predictive ability than either the ASA Physical Status or the Charlson Comorbidity Index. OaraScore is based on an algorithm that improves over time, it is frequently updated to adapt to advancements in medicine. This is a clear advantage over older screening tools which haven't changed since they were first developed decades ago, according to Mr. Edwards.
"OaraScore addresses one of the most critical components of a successful outpatient total joint program — patient selection," Mr. Edwards said.
Another important consideration is the time required to calculate OaraScore. This assessment tool fits perfectly into preoperative evaluation and assessment workflows. Most surgeons with a healthy patient can complete the scoring in under a minute or two.
In addition to presurgical evaluations, OaraScore reminds surgeons when the 90-day period of a patient's postoperative follow-up is complete. Clinicians can enter whether the patient had complications and whether the patient was discharged without a readmission within those 90 days. Within OaraScore, surgeons can track different types of data and compare them to colleagues on a national level.
Once orthopedic procedures are completed, Enovis™ provides ongoing patient support services for clinics and ASCs, such as smart bracing, virtual rehabilitation solutions like Motion iQ®, remote patient monitoring and long-term patient outcome tracking. These offerings enable providers to develop strong partnerships with patients that contribute to positive results and higher levels of satisfaction.
Empowering employees with automation
The persistent staffing crisis in healthcare requires both short-term solutions and long-term strategic planning. One key to success is to support and empower staff members so they can be effective in their roles by reducing the time they have to spend on repetitive, onerous tasks.
"Many times, employees see new automation solutions and ask, 'What's in it for me?'" Mr. Ross, said. "Our charge at Enovis is to deliver workflow solutions that provide actionable data, eliminate unnecessary manual operations, and reduce the overall time spent on each task. And easy to use workflow solutions enable better clinic financial results as well, with higher collection rates and better inventory control."
When deploying automation, engagement from staff and administrators is essential for successful adoption. To facilitate a smooth implementation, MotionMD® customers design their own automated workflows in close coordination with the Healthcare Solutions Implementation team at Enovis, ensuring the Voice of Customer (VOC) is represented. In addition, it's easy for physicians to set up their individual pathway protocols. Since MotionMD® is HITRUST® certified, practices can rest easy knowing sensitive patient data is secure.
Supply chain is one administrative area where automation can make an immense difference. The MotionMD platform supports inventory management, which allows practices to optimize inventory levels and ordering. It's easy to track exactly which items are in stock and which need to be replenished, ensuring the right products are on hand and running a leaner inventory helps manage cash flow.
"MotionMD's solutions grew out of efforts to automate and optimize our own inventory," Mr. Ross said. "We realized the potential existed for our solutions to support the whole continuum of care. Clinics store a lot less product in-house because they have better insight, analytics, and management over it. When new products need to be ordered, the turnaround is fast."
On the reimbursement front, MotionMD's VeriPro® application offers patients and providers price transparency at the time of service. Clinic staff have access to detailed, real-time insurance benefits specific to each HCPCS code, including the patient's remaining deductible, remaining out-of-pocket costs and DME-specific coinsurance.
Workflow improvements are achieved with MotionMD; for example, the Medicare ‘same and similar checks’ application reduces the risk a clinic will dispense a piece of durable medical equipment or orthotics to a patient that may have already received the same or a similar product. This provides greater transparency for patients and reduces risk for the clinic.
"The patient is the new payor, so orthopedic clinics and ASCs need to leverage tools like VeriPro that tell patients in real time how much they owe," Mr. Ross said. "VeriPro helps patients make informed decisions about their care and it also enables practices to quickly collect the estimated patient financial responsibility up front."
Clinic staff can bring an iPad into patient appointments and walk them through all the relevant information regarding product being received, VeriPro provides an estimated patient responsibility for the product and MotionMD captures the patient and the provider signatures, and the patient receipts can then be delivered electronically, this fully automated approach is superior to inefficient and error-prone repetitive paper-based processes.
MotionMD improves every aspect of practice performance from financial optimization to inventory management. Other components of the MotionMD platform include OfficeCare®, which supports customized DME management programs; eCare®, a collaborative and simple solution for DME cost recovery; and Enovis also offers Motion iQ®, for remote patient monitoring and rehabilitation; clinicians have many tools at their disposal to help patients make more informed decisions about their care.
"By improving workflow efficiency, we see that a practice or physician can see one to two additional patients a day on average," Mr. Edwards said. "If you multiply that over a year, you can see many more patients and provide better treatment."
Conclusion
Enovis is committed to staying one step ahead of clinical and care delivery trends, as well as the mounting challenges related to insurance coverage and running an ASC. Thanks to its flexible development cycle, Enovis continuously updates and expands the MotionMD® platform to meet practices' evolving needs.
"The complexities of operating orthopedic clinics and ASCs continue to increase," Mr. Edwards said. "Providers need proven solutions to leap these hurdles in real time. With its culture of continuous improvement, extraordinary talent, and innovation, Enovis is 'creating better together' with our healthcare partners."
To learn more or to sign up for a free demo please visit: