|
 
 |
| SHORT REVIEW |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 23
| Issue : 1 | Page : 10-12 |
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Population health management is beneficial for all stakeholders
Vijay Thawani
People's College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
| Date of Web Publication | 3-Apr-2018 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Vijay Thawani
People's College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bhanpur, Bhopal - 462 037, Madhya Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jmgims.jmgims_7_18
Population health management is the aggregation of patient data from health information technology resources, analytical output of which is used for improving clinical and financial outcomes. The PHM programs use business intelligence tool to monitor and aggregate data and provide a comprehensive clinical picture of each patient. Using such data, providers can track, and improve, clinical outcomes while lowering the costs. Effective PHM benefits all stakeholders – the patients, physicians, health-care organizations, health-care system, and the nation.
Keywords: Benefits, care, health
How to cite this article:
Thawani V. Population health management is beneficial for all stakeholders. J Mahatma Gandhi Inst Med Sci 2018;23:10-2 |
The population health management (phm) brings clinical, financial, and operational data together from across the enterprise and provides actionable analytics for providers to improve efficiency and patient care.[1] The phm provides comprehensive, authoritative strategies for improving the systems and policies that affect health-care quality, access, and outcomes, ultimately improving the health of an entire population.[2]
| The Goals of Population Health Management | |  |
Financial improvement
To mitigate costs by focusing on appropriate utilization of services to manage and coordinate care efficiently, for example, mitigate costs by effectively managing and preventing chronic diseases.[3]
Clinical proficiency
To identify care gaps, it includes process metrics, such as the delivery of care services, and outcomes metrics, such as assessing the health of the patient population. Possessing and analyzing these data allow providers to identify the greatest needs of the patient population.[3]
Better patient engagement
To prevent disease and maintain wellness, patients are motivated to make healthy choices while out of health-care facility.[3]
The PHM attempts to provide better care while reducing costs. A successful PHM analysis takes data from financial, clinical, and workplace sources and combines them to give providers a practical solution which come in “care gaps.” Gaps in care occur when health-care standards are not met. This can come in the form of a data mismatch due to lack of communication, an overcompensation of treatments, and improper use of electronic health records. When the care gaps are identified through PHM analytics, they can be fixed, saving providers time and money.[4]
About 80% of the factors affecting the health are outside the traditional boundaries of health-care delivery such as health behaviors (tobacco use, sexual activity), social and economic factors (employment, education, income), and physical environment (air quality, water quality). To improve the outcomes, health-care delivery systems must expand their interactions with people in these territories which are now the purview of the public health.[5]
| Moving Population Health Management Forward | | |
Hence, long health-care delivery systems have not dealt with the socioeconomic and social determinants of health to the degree that public health systems have. Health-care delivery systems must add public health professionals and epidemiologists to their staff. They need to build the skills to interact with and develop health intervention strategies in concert with law enforcement, social support services in the community, including charitable and religious organizations, job growth and economic development in communities that ensures people can afford care when they need it, adequate affordable housing in the community, healthy options for eating in the community, adequate dental care, primary and secondary education programs that encourage healthy lifestyles, violent crime reduction, and environmental strategies to ensure that communities have clean air and water. Such issues public health professionals have been managing in the progressive reduction of infectious disease in communities.[5]
Employers are beginning to create more robust and potentially effective systems of integrated health management interventions. Such organization-wide activity is known as PHM approach. Best practices are also emerging in this area, and a number of technical developments are helping shape the patterns of response from innovative employers. This initiative is rapidly becoming a critical part of health-care strategy.[6]
| Benefits of Population Health Management | | |
The PHM offers effective benefits aimed at patients, health-care institutions, physicians, the system and nation as a whole. These are:[7]
Better health outcomes
PHM aims at improving healthcare quality while reducing costs. For measuring this, year wise admissions in hospitals can be evaluated.
Disease prevention
PHM takes care of patients who are facing chronic diseases involving high costs of treatment. PHM uses effective solutions for managing the care provided by healthcare service providers to them.
Reduction of care gaps
PHM provides ample amenities to physicians and organizations to access patients' needs in real time and generate speedy help. Hospital bills, laboratory and investigation data, health record and prescriptions are taken into consideration to serve the unmet needs of patients. Thus, service delivery gaps can be eradicated positively.
For the patients
Better coordinated care is received by the patients, and thus they enjoy improved health. This is because they are notified of the medication process that is required for managing their disease. Timely care provided to patients ensures that huge costs pertaining to extraneous expensive processes are saved.
For physicians
Physicians get improved information which furthers the curing process, thus resulting in measurably better outcomes. Physicians provide better health services by focusing more on patients' engagements and timely and synchronized care.
For health-care institutions
The organizations are in the profitable side because care gaps are lessened, volume of patients improved, and the care costs quantified.
For the health-care system
The system receives maximum benefits due to enhanced preventative care that helps in avoiding expensive treatment processes which leads to higher service quality.
For the nation
The benefits offered by PHM thus get accumulated in the health of the national population. Reduction in costs, better disease management, and population with better health are the ultimate positive outcomes for a nation.
| Wellness and Population Health Management Advantages | | |
- Implement strategies to improve employees overall wellness, leading to increased productivity
- Oversee the management of institution-wide wellness programs
- Recommend ways to motivate and cultivate maximum employee participation
- Reduce expenses tied to employee benefits and disability
- Access to top-notch wellness programs.[8]
| Additional Benefits of Population Health Management | | |
- Real-time insights that allow health-care organizations to identify and address care gaps within a patient population
- Streamlined tracking and management of care for a reduced number of emergency visits
- Identification of patients whose health can be improved by preventative measures
- Lower health-care costs for employees of organizations that utilize a PHM program
- Inclusion of patients not currently treated by a health-care organization.[9]
The PHM programs emphasize treating and managing the care of enrolled persons. Although these cannot address the economic, environmental, and social determinants of health and many health behaviors directly, they are well aware that their enrollees are significantly affected by these factors, especially persons who are at the risk because of poverty and illiteracy. However, PHM programs can provide clinical data, expertise and innovative thinking to community health improvement efforts that attempt to deal with these issues.[10]
| Conclusion | | |
Effective PHM benefits all stakeholders – the patients, physicians, health-care organizations, health-care system, and the nation. The patients receive better-coordinated care and enjoy better health. They save the cost for more expensive procedures not required because of timely care. The physicians are better informed, and their patients are more engaged, resulting in improved health outcomes. Physicians more easily satisfy quality measures that focus on engaging patients and providing timely, appropriate, and coordinated care. The health-care organizations are more profitable because gaps in care are filled, patient volume increases, and the cost of delivering care is accurately quantified. The health-care system benefits from increased preventative care, which helps avoid more expensive procedures and leads to higher quality, more efficient, better-coordinated health care. Finally, the nation benefits from reduced health-care costs, better management of diseases, and a generally healthier population.[11] Thus, the advantages of PHM are multifold and world over it is being looked up as the panacea to usher in the higher benefits in healthcare.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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