A physician studying a chief Kaiser Permanente clinical decision support implementation concludes that the vision for value-based care needs to incorporate clinical decision support integrated into EHR.
Healthcare appreciates the role that is played by evidence-based medicine in improving healthcare outcomes and lowering medical costs. The utilization of clinical decision support tools using evidence-based medication at the point of care offers physicians with an easy access to current recommendations and translational research.
Kaiser Permanente, an American integrated managed care consortium based in California, recently concluded a large-scale, electronic health record integration of clinical decision support tools. This included a prescription formulary, access to predictive analytics, evidence-based disability guidelines and treatment algorithms.
Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Director MD Kurt Hegmann said, “Integrating evidence-based decision tools at Kaiser involved planning and multiple stages of implementation. Engagement with all stakeholders including physicians, IT and administrators was essential for success. All implementation steps were important to be able to improve value and the quality of healthcare.”
Hegmann, who is also a Kaiser partner, further said that the road to meaningful and evidence-based medicine happens to be an iterative and a long process. It requires vision from the CEO level management, careful identification of real evidence-based medicine tools that are also useful, proper implementation, timely problem-solving, and unceasing improvement.
Experts working in clinical decision support and evidence-based medicine reportedly supported Hegmann hard-won advice.
“Have a vision and plan for developing value-based care that includes evidence-based medicine tools adoption, implementation, and continuous quality improvement,” Hegmann said. “And expect to have to adjust the plan while not losing focus.
Overall, there is a promising trend towards the value-based care which arose from quality improvement efforts. IT tools that are providing the proper means of achieving what previously was really challenging on paper should incorporate valid and proper clinical decision support integration with EHR.
“The day where reimbursement is largely or totally value-driven based on insurer/business/CMS-based requirements is likely quite near, and being unprepared for these changes could be organizationally fatal yet proactively avoidable,” Hegmann said.
