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Promoting PHM
Reasons for Adopting PHM
Medical practices should support population health management (PHM) because it also aims for the betterment of health care but with a wider perspective that would be more economical and effective for people. The quality of health care will not suffer because the proactive approach of PHM will reduce the cases which could have been preventable in the first place. (Chase, Delaney, Fetterolf et al., 2012). It is simply applying “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” on a wider scale on defined groups of people.
The reduction of emergency and chronic cases by PHM would lower the costs of treatment which would eventually allow medical insurers to lower their premiums. When health care becomes more affordable, people are encouraged to be more health conscious. All medical practices can still earn well but it would be more fulfilling because there will be better overall health among their clients. From clinic-centered medical care, the concept for PHM is the patient-centered medical home (PCMH); (Hodach & Handmaker, 2013).
Changes Required by PHM
PHM requires more monitoring of patients to catch the earliest signs of health issues that would prevent cases from developing into emergencies and interventions. More human labor for this task would be uneconomical for practices such that the logical recourse would be automation. Communication using IT would be a major part; examples would be scheduled sending of emails to a list of patients for various reminders and the use of social media networks. It is also by these means that data can be continuously gathered from patients. (Chase, Delaney, Fetterolf et al., 2012)
The influx of data from more communications will lead to challenges in cleaning, storing, organizing and retrieving of data. This would require investments in health IT systems which will include databases, warehouses and querying systems. Simple IT infrastructure and basic software can easily support the small and medium medical practices. Data can also be easily shared among practices for shared clients and this can provide better analysis of cases. One result would be patient-centric registries that would speed-up and empower primary care Hodach, R. and Handmaker, K. (2013).
Challenges in PHM Implementation
Barriers to Implementing PHM
Practices must be convinced of the long-term benefits in spite of the wide changes that have to be done in their systems, procedures and organization (Chase, Delaney, Fetterolf et al., 2012). Many practices will see these as costly efforts that may even result in lower revenues. In their minds, the preventive and proactive approach will reduce the costly high interventions for serious cases. This view may be unethical, but will surely be considered from a business point of view. Enterprise-wide change management will be crucial.
Expertise in work-flow design, automation and IT systems may sorely be lacking in small and midsize practices. Consultants and vendors need to be encouraged and engaged to come-up with low-cost but scalable solutions that practices can afford and find easy to use.
“Weak Links” in PHM processes
Patient engagement is an area where PHM managers will have less control. Re-educating a large number of people to take a more proactive and responsible attitude in their health management can take a long time and much information after many years of being in a reactive mode (“I’ll see the doctor only if I feel something”). Mass communication and education can be too costly for practices to invest on. Government should play a prominent role in this area.
More leadership, management and communication skills will be required from medical professionals who will lead out-of-office outreach teams that will initiate patients contact for PHM programs (Chase, Delaney, Fetterolf et al., 2012). In the traditional clinic-centric setting, engagements with patients were mostly one-on-one and patient-initiated. In PHM, communications would be to groups and would be provider-initiated as they have to continuously convince people of the efficacy of PHM for life-long health management. Outreach teams that would form medical neighborhoods is central to the PHM approach (Hodach, R. and Handmaker, K. (2013).
Overcoming Barriers to PHM
For mass education in PHM, the medical practices must consolidate as one voice and partner with the government. Both have the same goal of improving the overall health of the population. The health sector will be responsible for the contents in the messages in terms of the programs available and engagement procedures. The government can send messages on PHM and provide the mass communication facilities which the practices can ride on.
References
Chase, A, Delaney, C.W., Fetterolf, D. et al., (2012). Population Health Management. New York: Institute for Health Technology Transformation.
Hodach, R. and Handmaker, K. (2013). Population Health Management Technologies for Accountable Care. Dallas: Phytel.
