October 21, 2020

In the movie, Peggy Sue Got Married, a middle-aged mom goes back in time to her senior year in high school and reveals to the class brainiac all the techno wizardry to arrive in the years to come.  There would be microwave ovens and cell phones and personal computers, which would go on to revolutionize the way people worked and lived.

New ways of getting the job done are always just around the corner.  The trick is translating these technologies into a mechanism for business improvement.  In today’s article, we will explore ways in which hospitals are using cutting edge strategies to improve their clinical effectiveness, profitability and presence in the community.  So, buckle in, as we zoom “back to the future.”

Digital Diffusion

If you are like me, you have been receiving—daily, it seems—text messages that ask about your opinion of, or support for, certain state or national candidates for office.  I’m sure these same types of messages are inundating your Twitter feed and other social media accounts, as well.  Politicians and political action committees are certainly not behind the times when it comes to the latest means of communicating with the masses, and are not shy about putting these technologies to work.

As important as it is to get the word out about candidates and their positions, surely the health of all our citizens deserves equal efforts.  Should not hospitals and health providers, generally, use these same means to remind and encourage and even cajole their local residents concerning important health issues?  Think of it: what if a health facility used social media to remind a certain segment of the population in its area that it’s now time to schedule a colonoscopy, or to inform the local residents of its latest capabilities, or to point people to its most recent successes in a particular area of medicine?  Might that not translate to an increase in patient traffic?

According to a January 2020 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), only 10 percent of the population who are 35 years or older “routinely receive all high-priority clinical preventive services recommended for their age group.”  What would happen if your facility conducted an aggressive social media campaign that targeted these age groups in connection with such services?  According to the JAMA article, 100,000 lives could be saved nation-wide if preventive services were more fully accessed.

In an Oct. 19 article, the American Medical Association (AMA) featured an opinion piece that cited four ways in which social media can be used to promote the importance of accessing preventive health by those in the community.  The following list is based on the recommendations in that article, but contains our additional commentary.

1. Call out misinformation on social media, which is especially important as it has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Of course, one must remember that misinformation is in the eye of the beholder.  Different experts may differ with each other as to cause, course and treatment—based on their own observations and a multiplicity of studies.  Therefore, you will want to be judicious in determining what is deemed to be misinformation by all trusted parties.
2. Update and spread recommendations from trusted sources that provide regularly updated guidelines for preventive services.  Use social media to educate the community of any new changes in guidelines.
3. Connect with hard-to-reach population groups, such as individuals without a primary care physician or those without insurance.  Using social media to engage with these groups, who are particularly vulnerable to poor health outcomes, may help influence behavior change.
4. Promote public health initiatives by forging partnerships between researchers, health organizations and social media industry leaders to reach more people and engage with them about preventive health measures.

Preventive healthcare may include such well-established interventions as blood pressure checks, cancer screening and substance abuse counseling.  These services allow for early detection of disease when treatment is likely to be most effective, according to the AMA.

Supercharging Your EMR

According to a study performed by Becker’s IT Report, hospitals around the country have added enhancements to their electronic medical record (EMR) capabilities in recent months.  These include digital alerts and other tools that could increase efficiencies and patient care.  Here is a sample of the EMR enhancements Becker’s has noted since June of this year:

• An Illinois-based university health system completed a precision medicine program that adds patients’ genetic testing information into its Epic EMR.  The goal is to alert clinicians of potential medication interactions.
• A Cleveland health entity integrated an electronic resource referral platform within its EMR to better track and coordinate resources for patients’ social determinants of health needs.
• Nashville-based HCA Healthcare deployed a wireless infusion pump programming capability across its EMR systems at nine of its facilities.
• SSM Health merged its EMR with documentation systems that local EMS agencies use to share patient data more quickly both inside and outside of the health system’s facilities in Wisconsin.
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center launched a program to streamline the number of automated alerts and reminders in the EMR.
• Baystate Health in Massachusetts teamed up with an EMR optimization software company to embed a charge capture software application within its Cerner EMR system.
• Researchers at the University of Minnesota and M Health Fairview created a new artificial intelligence algorithm that evaluates chest X-rays to diagnose potential cases of COVID-19 and made it available at scale for free in Epic’s App Orchard in October.

This is exciting!  Improving capabilities, improving efficiencies and improving outcomes—that’s what technology brings to the healthcare space.  However, all these new bells and whistles won’t do a bit of good unless hospital decision-makers take deliberate steps to utilize them.  Whether it be the creative use of the latest social media outlets or promoting innovative changes to its electronic record system, these are just a couple of ways in which facilities can improve their abilities, as well as profitability, in the days ahead.

We at MiraMed Global Services encourage hospital CEOs, CIOs and CFOs to make greater use of the technologies now available.  Look at what other facilities—such as the ones discussed above—are doing to maximize their potential and then build on those ideas at your hospital.  If we can help you in this process, please reach out to us at info@miramedgs.com.  We believe in the power of technology to transform your outcomes.