FrontEnders Healthcare Services Pvt. Ltd

Showing posts with label healthcare information technology. Show all posts

Smart Technologies are being leveraged by both individuals and businesses worldwide to ease the quality of life and enhance service levels. Healthcare Technology Management is no exception to this. It uses intelligent applications like the Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Big Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence to transform the prevailing medical systems to become more patient-centric, personalized and efficient.

Thus, traditional healthcare systems are being transitioned to a multi-level care model that caters to the individualized needs of patients diligently without compromising on efficiency. To cater to this challenging demand, Smart Hospital Technology embraces a host of computer programs to record health information from advanced sensors. This is automatically stored and delivered as actionable insights for taking quick and reliable medical decisions.

Likewise, Healthcare ICT (ICT-Information and Communication Technologies) is being deployed enormously to reduce clinical errors and build robust care systems. That is done by building integrated databases and other applications to empower care operations and practices to improve patient safety, data security and quality of services offered.

The global potential of smart healthcare is promising as we see increased adoption of wearables, portable health detectors, care applications, trackers and IoT devices. Hence, the access to healthcare is literally at the fingertips as it encompasses everything from tracking heartbeats to booking appointments and making online consultations. Healthcare IT Consulting Firms can empower care providers in optimally using this advantage to give a new dimension to value-based care.

Advantages of Smart Healthcare

Smoother hospital experiences as patient engagements are transformed to address health issues in a short timespan by eliminating waiting times and making health records accessible to all concerned stakeholders in a device-diagnostic manner.
Better care services and enhanced patient satisfaction due to reduced error rates as doctors gain access to information in real-time. Besides, interactive data helps in making proactive medical decisions fostering preventive care rather than a predictive one.
Meaningful time usage as patient-doctor consultations is primarily used for designing care strategies and treatment roadmaps based on current, correct and complete medical inputs.
Enhanced communication and improved extended care as there is a seamless interconnection between various hospital departments resulting in greater collaboration. That leads to fewer insurance claim rejections, lower possibilities of duplicating diagnostic tests and empowered referral interactions between all stakeholders of the healthcare chain.
Increased security and safety by the usage of perfect tracking systems to make sure that patient is correctly attended at all times and medical equipment are in good working condition to prevent dangerous episodes like electrocution and suffocation.

Some Implementations of Smart Healthcare Technologies

Smart Pills - Using IoT, edible smart pills have been invented for continuous health monitoring, tracking non-adherence to medication schedules and controlling drug usage. These pills have an inbuilt sensor that can dissolve in the stomach and transmit data to a wearable patch. It is subsequently transferred to an app on the patient’s phone and transmitted to the caregiver via an online portal. So immediate action may be taken and serious consequences are prevented (in case of non-compliance).
Hypertension Monitoring Systems - Sensor-based intelligent systems are available to monitor the blood pressure of hypertensive patients at home. The patient may thus seek medical help if required or take the required medicines in case of blood pressure surges to prevent cardiac attacks.
Smart Watches - Healthcare technology companies have devised wearable smart watches that can track and monitor the health of people by assessing various parameters like fitness and activity levels, calories consumed and distance walked. By doing this, patients can note and modify their unhealthy habits that cause diseases and ailments.
Remote Monitoring - Real-time remote monitoring devices are available for sending information of patients who are located in distant areas to the doctors. The monitoring devices send a signal to the doctor if the patient needs immediate help and thus the problem may be addressed quickly thereby expediting the delivery of care services.

Thus Smart Healthcare Technology positively impacts patient satisfaction and takes care to new improved levels altogether.

Technology has invaded and impacted the healthcare industry in an enormous way and has redefined higher standards for the quality care of patients. Particularly, digitization and the development of Healthcare Information Technology has significantly enhanced Healthcare Quality Management and enabled personalization of care with minimal clinical errors. This leads to greater satisfaction and meaningful patient engagements for rendering value-based healthcare.

With an increase in the aging population and constant rise in the need for medical facilities and social assistance, safeguarding public health assumes a new dimension. There are several crucial factors that must be addressed for this -

Meeting the growing sophisticated demands of the patient community in a connected world supported by technology and driven by care facilities.
Combating the constrained budgets and increasing healthcare costs.
Addressing the complexity of new technologies and enabling their hassle-free deployment through seamless integration and enhanced security methods.

These challenges are applicable to India as well because healthcare is one of the most rapidly growing sectors here. This growth is further boosted by the government initiatives and plans which push India into the competitive global health market by optimally leveraging on its low-cost treatment options and medical expertise. Despite this, most Indians face tremendous difficulties with respect to accessibility and affordability of healthcare facilities. The slow response to technology creates a huge lag between the required and available healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel in India.

Let us explore the main reasons behind the slow adoption of technology in Indian Healthcare.

Resistance to change - The digital transformation calls for enormous changes in the functioning of the healthcare enterprises which needs to be adopted by all concerned including the heads, doctors, nurses and other medical staff. New technology calls for a change in the mindset of these people who resist it due to fear of the unknown and risk aversion.
Money factor - Most healthcare organizations look at the immediate Return on Investments (ROI) for investing in technology without understanding its underlying potential. Since the initial costs incurred are substantially high, there is difficulty in comprehending the scalability, cost savings, larger reachability and patient retention in the long run.
Data security - Security of information poses a huge challenge to healthcare due to the personal nature and sensitivity of patient data involved. As cyber attacks threaten this security, most organizations strongly resist taking the plunge to the technological world. They fear that unwanted exposure of healthcare information can lead to loss of patient confidentiality, insurance frauds and unethical medical practices.
Existence of data silos - Everyday, healthcare transactions leads to the generation of exorbitant amounts of data which means to be handled properly. Doing good data management, segregating data and ensuring interoperability between various information sources is a huge problem which cannot be rectified by mere adoption of technology. Hence a holistic and top-down patient-driven approach is needed for integrating the independent silos of data and ensuring there is a cross-functional collaboration between them to derive meaningful insights.
Not understanding the ‘big’ picture - Mere adoption of digitisation through Healthcare Information Systems and Electronic Healthcare Records will not help in reaping technology benefits. It is equally important to envisage all the background tasks and processes involved in the complete patient lifecycle. Hence a clear vision of the patient’s digital needs, goal setting and subsequent execution are required as healthcare involves real-time solutions which are crucial in saving the lives of patients.

Other reasons include -

Reactive nature of Indian healthcare with less emphasis on preventive measures.
Fewer accredited healthcare organizations.
Low insurance penetration leading to out-of-pocket private healthcare expenses.
Shortage of qualified physicians, nurses and other medical personnel.

The professional expertise of hospital consulting firm is beneficial for overcoming these hurdles.

Today, healthcare sector is not merely amongst the fastest growing ones in the industry, but also facing rapid and enormous transformations .This is because it is undergoing a paradigm shift from the conventional ‘fee-for service model’ to a more ‘value-based reimbursement realm’ . Thereby all Healthcare Consulting Firms(HCFs) should guide Health Care Providers (HCPs) to focus on Health Care Supply Chain(HCSC).

Supply Chain Consulting (SCC) essentially deals with optimizing the holistic flow of relationships between suppliers and customers for efficiently delivering low cost but high quality goods and supplies along the entire chain starting from point of purchase to point of use. With respect to healthcare, outcome–based efforts have to transcend to silos of quality and error-free patient-care by HCPs and incorporate the inputs of all HCFs.

Need for HCSC
With pace of innovation growing exponentially and presence of dramatic demographic shifts, all HCPs are challenged to make reforms to top quality standard patient care at minimal costs. This focus on value- based care calls for looking beyond ‘cost and inventory streamlining’ from a short time perspective and foreseeing what exactly drives optimal results on Health Information Management (HIM) the long run. Thus it has direct implications across all entities of HCSC.

Challenges faced

The human elements of the HCSC links such as physicians, chemists, manufacturers and distributors are failing to communicate cohesively and productively.
Risk sharing, value-based reimbursement, exchanges and consumers with new insurance are driving hospitals to implement stringent cash conservation measures.
HCPs have both capital and human financial tied up in all kinds of software initiatives and regulatory/governance mechanisms.
The rising cost of pharmaceuticals is eroding margins.
HCPs are facing the increased demands of consumerism and are managing significant volumes of cash cycle issues, write offs, write downs and payment plans than ever before.
Combination of multiple and complex patient expectations of pricing accuracy, greater levels of transparency and communication, the dissemination of actionable data, and more revenue cycle accountability is calling for a disciplinary approach in HCSC.

Measures for making HCSC ‘Value Based’
Primary Measures

Empowering all stakeholders in HCSC including physicians - HCPs and HCFs can make enormous impact by empowering physicians in collaborative contracting decisions, and by moving away from conventional price norms and readily available contracts. Physicians certainly best comprehend what clinical technologies are required to provide quality patient outcomes. Therefore HCPs should engage in productive dialogue with them to leverage on this information and allow them to take ownership in product sourcing decisions for maximizing supply chain value.
Developing good rapport and interdependence with vendors and suppliers - HCPs should recognize their interdependence with vendors and suppliers and explore ways to help discover shared value by gaining preferred pricing on clinical items and medical equipment. Since their market share is determined multi-dimensionally, progressive suppliers are responding to this shift by sharing risk to prove their ability to drive lower cost and high-quality care. By establishing a true partnership approach, they should be supported with meaningful incentives designed around clinical and cost-effective utilization. Also, focus should be given on vendor integration with hospitals systems for providing better business intelligence capabilities and getting more accurate data for inventory optimization programs.
Linking contracts to outcomes for making targeted and sophisticated total cost assessments -Usually, hospitals focus on patient’s immediate stay durations, and physicians follow their recovery. HCPs and insurers subsequently follow their long-term health trajectory. The key to unlocking outcomes-based contracting is linking these silos of knowledge by tracking not merely tangible procedural costs (like operating room time/personnel costs), but also episode-of-care cost and lifetime costs. This information accurately captures the impact of all supply chain decisions ranging from likelihood of readmission to revision.
Focus on processes – This can be done by bringing automation to HCSC and eliminating manual processes for generating useful data that may be analysed later for improved purchasing and forecasting decisions. Continued investment in automation and data analytics in HIM and a consistent drive towards greater data transparency and reliance on more streamlined standards also helps to mend broken supply chain links.

Other Measures

HCPs must reframe their supply chain management policies and priorities to ensure that they can leverage new technologies to cut extraneous costs with minimized wastage and recycled resources where permissible.
HCPs should establish joint revenue cycles and supply chain approaches for increasing claims management and reimbursement accuracy and make data capture seamless for improving financial efficiencies across the complete supply chain.
HCPs must also work diligently to develop core competencies for making accurate estimations about inventory and prevent expenditures that occur with little or no justification.

Conclusion:

In order to succeed in this new era of evolving healthcare reforms, HCPs should evaluate their supply chain management techniques to make it value-based and consider acquisition of data analytics tools. This prepares them for a future, where every clinical resource/equipment and thereby the cost incurred, may be tracked, managed and used effectively.

Indian Healthcare is experiencing a new opportunity tide and is one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of both revenue and employment. The complete Indian healthcare market is worth approximately US$ 100 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.9 per cent. Out of this, the Healthcare Information Technology (IT) market alone is valued at US$ 1 billion currently and is expected to grow 1.5 times.

Healthcare components includes hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres, medical equipments, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and related areas. The increased growth in this sector may be attributed to its wide spectrum of coverage, expanding services portfolio and increasing expenditure by public as well private players. To cater to this challenging requirement, healthcare consulting services are needed.

Healthcare Consulting Service (HCS) can be defined as delivery of (administrative and management) services to the healthcare sector in areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, insurance, billing, coding, regulations and compliance and healthcare standards. HCS providers are continuously revamping existing delivery models to bring it closer to its most important stakeholder -'The Patient'.
Each day thousands of patients enter healthcare facilities challenging the smooth flow of the administration .HCS has to manage and integrate clinical, financial and operational information that grows with the practice. Previously, data was organized manually making retrieval time- consuming and less efficient. Today, most professionally run hospitals and clinics now rely on Hospital Information Systems (HIS) that help them manage information.

HIS is essentially a computer system that enables seamless flow of information for effective integration of all clinical, financial, operational, regulatory and administrative applications in hospitals. This is done by collating informational needs of various departments.

Modules

Hospital Patient Management System(HPMS) for taking care of both inpatients and out patients including systems for registration, admission, medical history, diagnosis, treatment, progress and
Ward and Bed Management
Physician Management
Treatment Management
Nursing Management
Medical Services Management including operation theatres, pharmacy and laboratory, radiology and cardiology information systems
Material Management for both medical and non-medical items
Pathology Management including appointment scheduling, diagnostic tests and report generation
Billing Management

With the focus on healthcare strategy changing from fee-for-volume to fee-for-value, it is crucial to have an efficient and future- proof HIS.

Features

Quick access to reliable digital information including patients related data(demographics, gender, age, disease, diagnosis, treatment etc. ) ,finance systems, medication distribution for monitoring drug usage, patient diet charts by maintaining Electronic Health Records
User friendly multilingual interfaces
Facility for training vendors
Flexible to technology changes
Affordable and scalable with hospital's growing needs
Patient-centric and medical-staff centric
Robust structure incorporating a sustainable reimbursement model for cost coverage

Benefits

Delivers 'accountable and high quality ' patient care leading to customer delight and enhanced customer experience
Ensures retention of existing clientele for repeat customers with pre-existing ailments
Encourages expansion of the customer base for prospective patients using proactive Preventive Health Maintenance approach
Gives better financial management by portraying transparency ,reducing inventory leakages, minimising costs and increasing operational efficiencies
Enhances information integrity through web sharing
Minimises transcription errors
Reduces duplication of relevant information
Optimises report turnaround time
Increases the hospital's brand image and reputation

Challenges

Scalability from pilot implementations to full-fledged systems
Interoperability and cooperation between all major stake holders
Safety of the patient's personal data and other sensitive information

In conclusion, an efficient and future-proof Hospital Information System(HIS) should cater to latest technological advancements, have adequate infrastructure and capability to transition from conventional practices and have a low-cost, fool-proof implementation to provide the ‘best of its kind’ patient centric healthcare!

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Navigation

Utilization of Smart Technologies in Healthcare Field

Why Healthcare Technological Updates are Slow in India?

Value-based Supply Chain Management Techniques for Healthcare

An Efficient and Future-proof Hospital Information System (HIS)

Instagram