With the number of healthcare mergers and acquisitions continuing to grow, it's hard to keep up with the various affiliations and partnerships between providers. The weekly announcements of IDNs acquiring community hospitals, or hospitals acquiring clinics and physician practices confirm that this trend is not slowing. With Meaningful Use deadlines looming on the horizon, it will be important for these health networks to increase efficiencies and consolidate processes in order to maximize cost savings during the merger and beyond. These providers will need to develop a transition plan that addresses workflow as well as technology in order to be successful in the long term.
There are analogies on a personal level that bring these concepts to life. Whether you are combining households through marriage, or inviting parents or in-laws to move in, you'll need to eliminate redundancies (how many coffee makers do you need?) and consolidate technology (which cable company do you choose?). By consolidating, you'll be able to take advantage of bigger savings while minimizing the number of bills you need to pay and vendors you need to manage.
For healthcare providers, there are similar steps to take as health systems join together. Not only is it necessary to understand the systems, technology and processes in place throughout the health network, but it is also important to develop a strategy to integrate and consolidate as the health systems merge. With the proliferation of different EMR systems throughout the health network, this effort becomes even more challenging.
While navigating through the merger may seem daunting, there are some practical steps for providers to take when developing a transition plan. A critical first step is to conduct a thorough, system-wide assessment throughout the health network. The assessment should cover the breadth of health information issues, including the records and health information processes that impact costs, care and your organization's goals. As a healthcare provider, you will need to:
Understand what you're spending, both where and why. Do you have multiple health information management vendors duplicating efforts and costs?
Evaluate the true, total costs of managing this information across the health network. You should factor in real estate, personnel, vendors, and opportunity costs to get an accurate picture.
Develop a strategy to handle hybrid records. Paper is still pervasive, so you will need to utilize intelligent scanning to manage the transition from physical to electronic.
Assess your ability to manage the workflows and storage of PACS, RIS, HIS and Lab records in the post-EHR environment. Are you maximizing efficiencies and costs?
Plan for managing the explosive growth of digital data. Does your current solution maximize capacity utilization, allowing you to scale on demand?
Even in the best of circumstances, healthcare records and information management presents an enormous challenge. It is an inherently difficult task to balance the information management challenges across multiple departments and thousands of patients, combined with the dueling needs to provide easy access and HIPAA-level security. This challenge is magnified even further as hospitals are merging with other hospitals and physician networks that all use their own unique workflows. By developing a sound strategy, you can unlock substantial savings throughout the process and reduce the burden on your resources. If you're successful in your efforts, you may even be able to use that extra coffee maker to brew a celebratory cup of coffee.
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With the number of healthcare mergers and acquisitions continuing to grow, it's hard to keep up with the various affiliations and partnerships between providers. The weekly announcements of IDNs acquiring community hospitals, or hospitals acquiring clinics and physician practices confirm that this trend is not slowing. With Meaningful Use deadlines looming on the horizon, it will be important for these health networks to increase efficiencies and consolidate processes in order to maximize cost savings during the merger and beyond. These providers will need to develop a transition plan that addresses workflow as well as technology in order to be successful in the long term.
