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HCA’s Perlin to Show Strategies to Improve Value of Care
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) has been an industry leader in aligning technology and clinical processes to reduce cost and improve quality. At ANI, featured speaker Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, President of Clinical Services and Chief Medical Officer of HCA, will share insights from his success there and previously as the Chief Executive of the Veterans Health Administration.
Dr. Perlin
We recently asked Dr. Perlin for a preview of his presentation.
HFMA: What is one of the barriers that hospitals encounter when attempting to simultaneously reduce costs and improve quality of care?
Perlin: I think the biggest barrier that hospitals encounter in attempting to reduce costs while improving quality of care is the belief that high-quality care is more expensive. In virtually every other industry, quality is associated with greater efficiency. Particularly as we transform from volume-based to value-based health care, the ability to reduce rework, avoid mistakes, and provide demonstrated higher performance will improve the financial model of healthcare organizations.
HFMA: What is one strategy that you would suggest providers consider to overcome barriers to cost reduction and quality improvement?
Perlin: The opportunity to improve performance clinically and financially really requires an effective partnership between clinicians and healthcare administrators. And in the context of clinical alignment, discovery and process changes can occur that typically support improved clinical outcomes and greater financial efficiency.
The opportunity to achieve clinical alignment can take a number of forms, from employment models and integrated delivery systems, to linkages under shared performance contracts, to participation in novel demonstration programs such as the Acute Care Episodes pilot program, to effective medical staff relationships where common interests in clinical performance and financial performance are ultimately understood and valued. Achieving clinical alignment really takes a commitment from both clinicians and healthcare administrators. The next era of value-based healthcare will challenge us to develop a variety of adaptations that promote understanding of these interlinkages and of mutual dependencies and mutual opportunities for benefit—not just as we move toward federal healthcare reform, but as new models of reimbursement and provider risk-bearing are developed and implemented by commercial payers across the country.
HFMA: What is one way that hospitals can better align technology and clinical processes to reduce cost and improve quality?
Perlin: Healthcare information technologies such as electronic health records can really serve as both the glue and the fuel for aligning technology and clinical processes to reduce cost and improve quality. As national models (for healthcare payment) require not only good performance at isolated moments of health care, but really, good performance across entire episodes of care, healthcare information technologies can create a virtual “systemness” that has not existed previously, linking institutions, clinicians, and even patients. In the past, fragile, risky handoffs might have occurred because of a lack of systemness, resulting in problems or complications for patients and, frankly, avoidable resource utilization to correct those issues.
Healthcare information technologies can also serve as the fuel for providing decision support that ensures the best scientific evidence and most efficient processes of care are reliably provided to patients. These technologies can also serve as instruments for real-time measurement so that clinicians and institutions have immediate insight regarding their performance. Ultimately, information is the currency of accountability—it’s the currency for providing higher-value and for proving it. The result will be safer, more effective, more efficient, and, I would argue, more compassionate health care.
Dr. Perlin will present “Using Technology to Reduce Care Cost and Improve Quality” on Wednesday at 3:15.