Lehigh County Health & Medicine Winter 2019 - 15

L C M E D S O C .O R G

Data is abundant these days, especially in are considered high risk and rising risk. This
Mr. Jones also mentioned that he couldn't
health care. Many patients are accustomed kind of targeted care certainly benefits the see the writing on his pill bottles clearly.
to members of their care team entering patient, and in the long run, helps optimize I reviewed when he had last received an
information into a computer during a con- the health of a certain population as a whole. eye exam, and noticed that he was long
versation, both in an inpatient or outpatient
overdue. My team immediately made him
setting. The electronic medical record, or
The cumulative result of this process is an appointment with a retinal specialist
EMR, has become as common in the office value based, higher quality, targeted care and who discovered severe bleeding at the rear
as the blood pressure cuff. However, EMRs reduction of unnecessary tests and procedures. of his eye. This was likely caused by the
are not popular among all practitioners.
This is also the path to shared savings with duplicative blood thinners he was taking.
payer partners and positive value-based The specialist was able to stop the blood
Some say that it can take two hours to outcomes for hospitals and other health care thinner and treat his eye, saving Mr. Jones
record all the vital information related to organizations. And those actions combined, from even further serious conditions such
a one-hour patient visit. Clinicians often according to many industry experts, are as significant bleeding and blindness.
end up entering these facts and figures the key to a sustainable health care system.
after hours, when they should be enjoying
Everyone in that chain of events was
some down time. Fortunately, health care
able to do a better job of helping Mr. and
decision-makers are working on ways to CATCHING AND
Mrs. Jones be healthier - and it all started
mitigate the pressure and time demands CORRECTING PROBLEMS
with sharing data that allowed us to spot a
that accompany EMR data collection.
I'll give you an example of how data problem sooner rather than later.
These efforts are forging solutions that will can work directly for patients. I have two
reduce the volume, spread the responsibility, patients who were dealing with multiple
and allow clinicians to focus on their own health problems when they sought my care. WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN
well-being while not in the office.
To protect their privacy, I won't use their real
With all the potential unlocked through
names, but let's call them Mr. and Mrs. Jones. EMR, the evolution needs to continue
to enable optimal care of patients - and
A METHOD BEHIND THE MADNESS
Mrs. Jones, only 48 years old, had a of physicians. Data has added significant
Despite its critics, the EMR is today's major heart attack, and while still in the time and administrative complexity to the
connective tissue between health care's many open-heart unit, she suffered a massive physician's day; however, its intrinsic value
arms that move together to help a patient stroke. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones, who was the has multiplied the caregiver's capabilities.
in need. Looking at the overall picture, you caregiver for his wife, had heart disease and
could say that the ability to sustain health unfortunately ended up in the hospital at
Through innovative sharing of patient
care as we know it comes down to data, the same time she did.
records and collaboration between people
universally housed in the EMR.
and organizations, health care data pinpoints
When they were discharged from the disease, disease risk, intervention opporIt all starts in the physician's office or in hospital, Mr. and Mrs. Jones' medications tunities, tracks results, and can highlight
the hospital room. This is where a patient is were reviewed - and a frightening discovery problems that could otherwise go unnoticed.
seen and intervention, improvement, and in- was made. The medications on record with This is how steps toward improvement are
surance risk calculations begin. Sophisticated the insurer were different than what was identified and acted upon, and consequently,
health care data analytics may incorporate documented on their medical charts, which how higher quality health care is achieved.
the additional dimension of claims data, were also different from what I had recorded. As the science advances, so will technical
which when combined with EMR data, is We were able to spot those discrepancies facility. The future is starting to be defined
capable of producing a 360-degree view only because we were sharing that data. The by data's capability to create personalized
of the patient's health, including medical lack of agreement in the respective records health models along with visualization
history information that the caregiver may instantly raised a red flag telling me that I for precisely monitoring patients' disease
not have already had.
better look into this.
progression or health over time.*
Higher level insights into a physician's
patient panel are possible through the
richness of data from the EMR/insurance
claims combination. Clinicians can see
where there may be gaps in care, if they
are coding accurately, standard costs for an
entire episode of care, and which patients

I asked the couple to bring all of their
medications into the office so we could review
them together. Upon investigation, I discovered
that they were taking multiple drugs that had
the same drug classifications and shouldn't be
taken at the same time. As you can imagine,
this could be harmful, if not potentially deadly.

These technologies permit a greater concentration on health preservation, rather
than the current focus on disease diagnosis,
monitoring, and treatment. The highly
Continued on page 16
WINTER 2019 | Lehigh County Health & Medicine 15

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Lehigh County Health & Medicine Winter 2019

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