New System Will Alert Physicians of Patient Hospital Admission and Discharge
Dover, DE, April 2, 2013 – Audacious Inquiry (Ai), an innovative management and technology consulting firm, has entered into an agreement with the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), to implement its Encounter Notification Service (ENS) throughout the state of Delaware, it was announced today. DHIN, founded in 2007, is the first and most mature statewide health information exchange in the country.
“DHIN is thrilled to be partnering with Audacious Inquiry on this new and exciting alerts project,” said Dr. Jan Lee, Executive Director of the Delaware Health Information Network. “This is a great example of how technology can help bring doctors closer to their patients, with real time alerts indicating when a patient has been admitted or discharged from a DHIN enrolled hospital. Audacious Inquiry has demonstrated success with this type of functionality in other states and we are excited to have them support our efforts in Delaware.”
ENS delivers real-time, encrypted notifications to interested parties such as primary care practices, patient-centered medical homes, hospital readmission programs, and managed care organizations when patients under their care experience a hospital-based encounter. Today, providers and others with care coordination responsibility may not know when one of their patients is admitted to a hospital, or they may find out well after the hospital event. ENS supports hospital communication with primary care providers and care managers to promote care coordination, reduce readmissions, and prepare for new payment models.
“ENS is the product of two basic insights we have gained in the last five years of work with HIEs,” said Christopher Brandt, Founder and Managing Partner of Ai. “First is that the basic demographic feeds which many HIEs have established with facilities throughout their service area are undervalued and include lots of impactful information. Second is that patient matching—master data management—is one of the most important things an HIE does, if one does it well. The solution capitalizes on these insights to put actionable information in the hands of the right caregiver at exactly the right time.”
Phase One Involves Two Hospitals
The first phase of this initiative is to pilot the concept for the DHIN and its stakeholders by delivering ED alerts from two Delaware hospitals to the two Delaware Medicaid managed care organizations. The second phase is to expand the list to include all Delaware hospitals as well as all Delaware payers and providers. The alerts—which indicate in real-time that a patient has been discharged from the hospital—are expected to help streamline coordination of care among care management teams.
ENS utilizes core infrastructure which many health information exchanges and hospital systems already operate—such as demographic feeds and master patient indexes—to support care coordination, reduce hospital readmissions, and drive revenue. In Maryland, ENS delivers notifications to more than 30 organizations, providing caregivers with actionable information on hundreds of patient encounters per day across 47 hospitals.
Ai developed ENS in response to demand from its statewide health information exchange customers, as a way of capitalizing on existing infrastructure to drive business value for HIE participants and help ensure HIE sustainability.
The cloud-based ENS solution allows for rapid deployment and time to value for both HIEs and their participants. It holds a clear value proposition for the following groups:
- Hospitals – ENS helps hospitals regulatory compliance, such as CMS A-0133 which states, “The patient has the right to have a family member or representative of his or her choice and his or her own physician notified promptly of his or her admission to the hospital.”
- Ambulatory providers – CMS recently approved two new transitional care management (TCM) CPT codes to reflect non face-to-face care management work involved in primary care. Reimbursements began on Jan 1st, 2013. According to AAFP, payments are estimated to total $600 million in 2013.
- Insurance plans, managed care organizations and ACOs – ENS supports responsive case management, delivers up-to-date member contact information, and supports a range of quality initiatives.
About the DHIN
The Delaware Health Information Network was created by the Delaware General Assembly in 1997 as a public-private partnership for the benefit of all citizens of Delaware to establish a statewide health information network and to address Delaware’s needs for timely, reliable and relevant healthcare information. With all Delaware acute care hospitals and approaching 100%* of providers now participating, DHIN is sharing real-time clinical information to improve patient outcomes, eliminate the duplication of service and reduce the cost of healthcare. For more information about DHIN visit www.DHIN.org or call 302-678-0220. Please also visit us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (@DHIN_hie).
* Provider penetration calculation reflects number of providers who make orders and are enrolled in DHIN (MD’s, OD’s, NP’s, PA’s and ED’s). Does not include healthcare care providers that do not make orders (e.g. Pathologists). Total provider list compiled from multiple sources including the Medical Society of Delaware, University of Delaware, Delaware Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Delaware Division of Professional Regulation.
About Ai
Audacious Inquiry works as a strategic partner to government agencies, businesses, professional associations, and non-profits to maximize the positive outcomes and minimize the risks of initiatives at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and government. Our customer base includes state agencies and state-designated entities for health information exchange (HIE), federal agencies including the Departments of Health & Human Services, Interior and Agriculture, hospitals and large integrated delivery networks (IDNs), national payers, as well as private-sector clients in the financial services, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. Ai has been certified as a “B corporation” in the state of Maryland, only the fifth company in the state to do so; as a “B corporation”, the company meets comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, agrees to meet higher legal accountability standards than ordinary companies, and is building a business constituency for good business. Additional information about Ai can be found at: www.ainq.com
