Population Health Management and Readmissions

Moving Ahead
The future of this movement and the next plateau, Metzger says, will rely on the implementation of health information exchanges (HIEs) to help close what she calls the “preventable readmissions loop.” This means determining whether or not a patient, for instance, has received the prescribed medication at the time of discharge. Unsurprisingly, she says hospitals with successful population health management programs will have to create a tight communicative bond with the local community of physicians.

Of course, growth will come not just from an internal commitment, but from government support as well. Morrison says Allina has gotten support from federal, state, and local government agencies, and cites both external and internal motivations as critical drivers. However, in terms of the most important aspect to a successful implementation, she stresses organizations must take a multi-dimensional approach to analytics, have both retrospective and prospective analysis, and build a strong collaboration between stakeholders.