The digital health space refers to the integration of technology and health care services to improve the overall quality of health care delivery. It encompasses a wide range of innovative and emerging technologies such as wearables, telehealth, artificial intelligence, mobile health, and electronic health records (EHRs). The digital health space offers numerous benefits such as improved patient outcomes, increased access to health care, reduced costs, and improved communication and collaboration between patients and health care providers. For example, patients can now monitor their vital signs such as blood pressure and glucose levels from home using wearable devices and share the data with their doctors in real-time. Telehealth technology allows patients to consult with their health care providers remotely without having to travel to the hospital, making health care more accessible, particularly in remote or rural areas. Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze vast amounts of patient data to identify patterns, predict outcomes, and provide personalized treatment recommendations. Overall, the digital health space is rapidly evolving, and the integration of technology in health

Saturday, September 6, 2014

EHRs Linked to Higher Revenue, Lower Patient Volume

EHRs Linked to Higher Revenue, Lower Patient Volume




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Electronic health record implementation can result in reduced patient volume but can increase revenue over the long term, according to a study published in theJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Becker's Hospital Review's "Hospital CIO" reports (Gregg, "Hospital CIO," Becker's Hospital Review, 9/3).
For the study, researchers from Drexel University compared patient volume and reimbursement at 30 ambulatory practices in the two years after EHR implementation with the practices' pre-implementation baseline (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 9/4).

Study Findings

The study found that practices' reimbursements increased "significantly," even as their number of patient visits declined (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 9/2). Specifically, practices on average submitted claims for 94 additional ancillary procedures per quarter after implementing an EHR system, while patient volume decreased on average by about 108 patients per quarter ("Hospital CIO," Becker's Hospital Review, 9/3).
The researchers wrote they did not find any indication of "upcoding or increased reimbursement rates to explain the increased revenues" (Clinical Innovation & Technology, 9/4).
They noted that their finding of increased revenues "is reassuring and offers a basis for further EHR investment," while their finding of decreased patient volume indicated that EHR systems were increasing practices' efficiency.

They recommended that any practices continuing to see declines in patient volume two years after implementing EHR systems should add analytics functionality to their EHR system to "focus on seeing the right patients" (FierceEMR, 9/2).
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