As the healthcare industry shifts its model of care, incorporating data into the clinical workflow and using it to inform decisions is crucial, according to HealthEdge chief nursing officer Kim Ingram.
Here are four thoughts she shared with Healthcare IT News.
1. Providers and health plans must exchange data at the point of care.
Healthcare provider-plan collaboration should be a primary focus, according to Ms. Ingram. "They are the ones driving the decisions and costs."
2. Good data can help improve systems, benefits, resources and overall care.
"You have to provide the right amount of data: the right information to help providers make good choices," Ms. Ingram said.
3. Thanks to the internet, patients are savvier.
"They come in and it’s a different dialogue than before. They’re wanting a specific treatment, but providers have to be able to show their reasoning from a quality perspective," Ms. Ingram said.
When patients request certain treatments but lack knowledge of their health plan coverage, quality and metrics data can back up decision-making.
4. Ultimately, data should help providers enable people to make the right choices.
"And how do we give that data to [payers and providers] in a way to enable those decisions?" Ms. Ingram said. "We have to make our software enable them to be able to serve, provide information, approval and recommendations – based on completing both cost quality and outcomes. And sometimes those are hard conversations."