Patient-Centered Care

Abstract

Clinical studies have long proven that patient-centered care reduces variability, improves quality in clinical practice and patient outcomes and reduces cost. This is the shared goal of healthcare’s Triple Aim: Simultaneously improving the health of the population, enhancing the experience and outcomes of the patient, and reducing per capita cost of care for the benefit of communities. Information, knowledge and insight sit at the center of improving care. But despite great need to achieve patient-centered care, there still is great want as many healthcare systems are falling short of achieving it. Some information systems are disparate, lack interoperability and integration. Healthcare CIOs and clinical IT leaders together with the healthcare industry play a key role as the technology innovators and enablers linking together people and processes for better care coordination. This white paper focuses on their 2015 priorities and initiatives to achieve high-quality, high-touch connected care with improvements in outcomes and reductions in cost. It includes insight from four healthcare IT leaders and four distinct case studies on their institutions. The experts include John Foley, CIO of University Hospitals in Cleveland; Arlyn Broekhuis, CIO of Sanford Health the Dakotas of the U.S.; Gene Thomas, CIO of Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss.; and Lynda Womack RT(R), the executive director of imaging services at John Muir Health in northern California.