Introduction to Value-Based Care
Dr. Bernard Schayes, a New York City-based physician in private practice with the Mount Sinai IPA and Northwell Health IPA, struggled with meeting the challenges in adopting value-based care. Ensuring patients stayed up to date with essential screenings was a constant challenge. Too often, patients missed these critical checkups due to a lack of reminders, scheduling difficulties, or barriers related to social determinants of health.
The Challenge
Coordinating this care manually was time-consuming and inefficient. Dr. Schayes’ team had to track down patients, send reminders, and follow up repeatedly – often with limited success. They also wanted to address social determinants of health (SDOH) factors, but without a streamlined system, gaps in care persisted – putting patients at risk and making it harder to meet value-based care goals.
Proposal
Dr. Schayes turned to AI-powered care coordination technology to help bridge these gaps by automating outreach, improving patient engagement, and ensuring more seamless coordination. This technology allowed Dr. Schayes and his team to focus more on patient care rather than administrative burdens. The AI technology gathers pertinent historical data, including lab results, X-rays, and healthcare encounters. It reviews medical records and family history while leveraging predictive analytics to enhance patient outcomes.
Meeting the Challenge
The AI technology came in addition to Dr. Schayes’ Electronic Health Record (EHR) because it can only read files, not write into them. AI mined the patient record and extracted useful data sets. For example, if a patient has albumin in their urine, they are at a high risk to develop renal failure years into the future. By intervening early, Dr. Schayes can prevent dialysis. This applies to cholesterol levels, blood sugar (A1C), and many other data points.
Results
For Dr. Schayes, AI has helped close significant care gaps with efficient use of staff resources. This was achieved because AI identified care gaps – upon Dr. Schayes’ approval – and gave staff the option of texting, email, or phone calls for outreach. This resulted in closing care gaps in an efficient, time-productive workflow.
Advice for Others
Dr. Schayes believes that AI technology has the potential to improve patient care, remove tedious work for providers, and ultimately improve health outcomes on a population health basis. With its help, there will be a convergence between data and predictive analytics, and provider care delivery will improve patient outcomes as a result. Dr. Schayes’ workflow has changed since employing AI, and he now records patient encounters in real-time, with the patient’s permission.
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI-powered care coordination technology has been a game-changer for Dr. Schayes and his team. It has helped them close care gaps, improve patient engagement, and focus more on patient care. As AI technology continues to evolve, it is likely to play an increasingly important role in improving healthcare outcomes and streamlining clinical workflows.
FAQs
- Q: What is value-based care?
A: Value-based care is a healthcare delivery model that focuses on providing high-quality care while reducing costs. - Q: How does AI-powered care coordination technology work?
A: AI-powered care coordination technology uses machine learning algorithms to analyze patient data, identify care gaps, and automate outreach to patients. - Q: What are the benefits of using AI in healthcare?
A: The benefits of using AI in healthcare include improved patient outcomes, increased efficiency, and enhanced patient engagement. - Q: Can AI replace human healthcare providers?
A: No, AI is designed to augment the work of human healthcare providers, not replace them. It can help with tasks such as data analysis and patient outreach, but human providers are still necessary for making clinical decisions and providing hands-on care.
