Why Continuity of Care Benefits Both Patients and Healthcare Providers

Do not index

In today's world of inconsistencies, continuity of care is a critical component in achieving a holistic state of health.

As healthcare providers, one of the most important goals is to ensure patients receive the highest quality of care possible. In hospitals, this is easier since they are bigger and better funded, but in smaller doctor's offices, it can be more challenging. Fortunately, doctors' offices will also be able to provide care more efficiently with the use of exciting new technologies. A key aspect of achieving this is through continuity of care. Continuity of care refers to the coordination of healthcare services over time to ensure patients receive consistent and high-quality care.

In this blog post, we will discuss the evolution of health information exchange, the importance of continuity of care, and how Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and patient-centered platforms like HealthKey are essential in ensuring continuity of care.

CCDA vs FHIR: The Evolution of Health Information Exchange

For years, healthcare providers used the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA) as the standard for exchanging clinical documents among healthcare providers and organizations. However, CCDA has its limitations. The CCDA standard requires a lot of customization and is not flexible, scalable, or easy to use. Let's make this easier by giving a patient example.

In essence, CCDA is comparable to receiving a lengthy recipe and instructions list for an entire Thanksgiving dinner. All the delectable sides, the ham, and the turkey combined into one massive document. Because of this, reading through CCDAs can be challenging for clinicians when a new patient arrives for their first appointment. Because of their rigorous format, you will still receive the turkey even if you just want ham. In a similar manner, gastroenterologists will have to look through a patient's allergy skin test results, which are less pertinent to them.

Fortunately, the next-generation standard for exchanging health data, called Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), is designed to overcome these limitations. FHIR is based on modern web technologies. FHIR is a significant step forward in terms of flexibility, scalability, and ease of use compared to CCDA.

FHIR is similar to receiving Thanksgiving dinner recipes that have been meticulously organized, dish by dish, just as the chef preferred. This means that the Turkey and the Stuffing have separate lists of ingredients and cooking instructions, as well as information about the author of the recipe and the date it was released (Granda Sue's stuffing is the finest ever!!!). As with FHIR, each component is separated into its own "documents," which can be imported and used in a relatively provider-friendly manner.

To carry on this analogy, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) are like recipe books. These may be either regional HIEs (such as Greater Houston HealthConnect) or national HIEs (like CommonWell Health Alliance). Health Information Exchanges integrate with Electronic Health Record (EHR) platforms such as AthenaHealth, and collaborate with major providers' Health Information Management Teams to establish a bidirectional information sharing system. This enables Hospital B to access a patient's medical records who was previously treated at Hospital A. However, Hospitals A and B must, of course, be a part of the same network for this to operate. I'll spare you the jumbled mixture of abbreviations and technicalities, but in summary: Both the US Government and health networks have already made significant investments in these exchanges. By the year 2030, nearly all patients will have their medical records available on these platforms. For those who are interested in learning more, here’s some bedtime reading.

Continuity of Care: A Patient-Centered Approach to Healthcare

Continuity of Care is a patient-centered approach and ensures that the quality of treatment patients receive does not deviate over time.

Importance of Continuity of Care

Continuity of Care is critical for providing high-quality, cost-effective care. When patients receive consistent, coordinated care over time, they are less likely to experience medical errors, unnecessary tests and procedures, and hospital readmissions. Moreover, Continuity of Care also leads to better patient outcomes and improved patient satisfaction.

1. Improved Patient Outcomes

Continuity of care has been shown to improve patient outcomes by reducing hospital admissions, decreasing the length of hospital stays, and improving medication management. Patients who receive continuity of care are also more likely to receive preventive care and follow-up care, which can lead to early detection and treatment of illnesses.

Since doctors are better equipped and have access with more patient's data, they can diagnose patients more reliably and accurately.

2. Increased patient satisfaction

Continuity of care can improve patient satisfaction by fostering a sense of trust and familiarity between the patient and the healthcare provider. Patients who receive continuity of care are more likely to feel heard, understood, and valued, which can lead to greater patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans.

Due to the fact that doctors already have their patients' medical data, there is less paperwork and less need for redundant follow-ups to review prior records.

3. Lower healthcare costs

Continuity of care can lower healthcare costs by reducing hospital admissions, decreasing the length of hospital stays, and improving medication management. Continuity of care patients are also more likely to obtain preventive care, which can result in early sickness detection and treatment, minimizing the need for expensive therapies.

Moreover, doctors won't need to order unnecessary, repetitive tests and labs because they are fully aware of what the patient's prior visits entailed.

4. Increased job satisfaction and reduced burnout:

Continuity of care allows healthcare providers to develop meaningful relationships with their patients, which leads to increased job satisfaction and reduced burnout.

When medical histories are seamlessly transitioned to new healthcare providers, there is less paperwork, less administrative effort, and more confident patient encounters. With every new patient, doctors can save time that they can utilize in extending patient care (or to make it home for dinner on time).

5. Enhanced reputation and competitiveness

Healthcare providers and healthcare systems that prioritize continuity of care are viewed more favorably by patients, payers, and regulators, which can enhance their reputation and competitiveness.

By way of its Promoting Interoperability program, Medicare's reimbursement program (MIPS) currently provides incentives to physicians for electronic medical record sharing. In the future, health record systems will be more integrated, and medical practitioners who don't take part will be left behind.

EHRs and CCDs: Enabling Consistency in Care Over Time

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Continuity of Care Document (CCD) play a significant role in ensuring consistency in care over time and sharing patient information across health information exchanges. CCDs, not to be confused with CCDAs, are standardized documents that provide information about a patient's medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. Healthcare providers can share CCDs to enable consistency in care over time, but only if these records are imported into the provider’s EHRs. The challenge is, EHR systems do not integrate with each other out of the box, so CCDs are hard to share. Most CCDs end up being faxed between doctors offices and get attached as PDF documents to patients charts, which make them hard to find and hard to use since the important health data isn’t broken out into their various components.

Empowering Patients: The Role of Patient-Centered Platforms

Continuity of care is crucial for improving patient outcomes and satisfaction, but it can be challenging to achieve in today's complex healthcare landscape. That's where HealthKey comes in - HealthKey is a digital platform that empowers patients to access and manage their health information anytime, anywhere. With HealthKey, patients can track their medical history, schedule appointments, view their care plan, and communicate with their healthcare provider - all in one place. HealthKey's user-friendly interface makes it easy for patients to navigate and share their medical data securely with their healthcare providers. By enabling patients to take an active role in their care, HealthKey can improve continuity of care and enhance the patient experience while reducing medical errors, administrative burden and improving outcomes.

Behind the scenes, HealthKey is an efficient tool that supports healthcare providers in handling the exchange of medical records on their behalf. HealthKey starts working as soon as a new patient is scheduled. HealthKey retrieves new patients' medical records, uses clinical-grade AI technology to summarize health histories, and imports the data straight into EHR systems without the need for clinicians or their administrative personnel to press a button…..kind of like magic 🪄. This significantly reduces the paperwork for new patients since the information they must provide on their intake form is now limited to their demographics, chief complaints, and review of systems. No need to keep track of whether granny or grandpa had melanoma.

Wrapping it up

Overall, continuity of care is a patient-centered approach to healthcare that recognizes the importance of building long-term relationships between patients and providers. It is also critical in providing high-quality, cost-effective care to patients. Healthcare providers may improve the quality of care they give and enable patients to actively participate in their own health by focusing on the patient experience and utilizing the best tools available, like as EHRs, CCDs, and patient-centered platforms like HealthKey.