Meeting the Near-term Data and Analytics Challenge for Coordinated Care

Jane Metzger, Research Principal in Emerging Practices, CSC. Critical to success with coordinated care is a constantly updated set of patient information available both to clinicians in real time, but also as structured data so that analytics can assist with clinical decision support, patient tracking, and population management on a broad scale. Thanks in large part to the HITECH incentive program, the pace of adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) has accelerated to the point that many hospitals and physician providers forming or participating in coordinated care delivery organizations are capturing important medical record information online and integrating EHR features into patient management.  Though critical, this local information won’t be enough.  Not only will many patients cross HIT boundaries for health care services, but the full continuum of care for some patients will involve nursing homes, rehabilitation hospitals, visiting nurses, and community health and support agencies to cover the breadth of services and geographies involved. To aid in strategy and planning to assemble more complete patient information for coordinated care, we look at the most likely external information sources, the information they can potentially contribute, and the ease with which information obtained can be put to use.