SAN JOSE, CA – More than half of the California physicians involved in a year-old pay-for-performance consortium have reported using new healthcare information technology to schedule patient visits and appointment reminders.
That’s just one of several conclusions reached from data culled during the first year of the Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium, a collaboration started by technology giants Cisco, Intel and Oracle and seven San Francisco Bay-area physician organizations. The consortium, which aims to “accelerate the use of technology for quality healthcare,” released its year-end results in April.
Aside from the 57 percent of physicians who created patient scheduling and appointment reminder systems, 43 percent of those physicians participating in the consortium began allowing same-day appointments and using data-mining technologies to improve patient information management. Also, 28 percent reported establishing electronic health records, disease registries, clinician reminder systems and guaranteed post-hospital follow-up systems.
Seven physician organizations (POs) representing 25 practice sites and more than 1,800 physicians are participating in the consortium. They received National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Physician Practice Connections recognition and have qualified to earn $584,000 so far for using nationally recognized quality of care standards.
“We are more than pleased to see the advancements these physician organizations have made to implement and enhance health information technology systems in order to improve the quality and safety of care,” said Jeffrey Rideout, MD, Cisco’s vice president of healthcare in the Internet Business Solutions Group and the company’s chief medical officer, in a press release. “These impressive results in just over a year underscore the transformational impact of implementing patient-centric health information technology systems and are really a tribute (to) those participating medical groups and IPAs who took on this program voluntarily.”
Among other results culled from a year’s worth of data, 28 percent of participating physicians reported increased use of e-prescribing, e-lab and e-radiology results; began to use electronic messaging; instituted an improved care management process; increased the use of existing EHRs and developed methods to better manage patient medication lists.
Also, 14 percent implemented better systems to track referrals, made progress toward implementing an EHR system and reported streamlining workflows.
Mychelle Mowry, vice president of global marketing and strategy for Oracle, said the consortium’s success – the span from initial discussion to the drafting of the first checks was only two years – shows that a grassroots effort can achieve positive results. She noted that a survey of attendees at the 2007 Annual World Health Care Congress, held April 22-24 in Washington D.C., indicated that 69 percent believe the federal government isn’t doing enough on pay-for-performance measures.
“The incentives here are motivational,” she said of the healthcare providers involved in the consortium, who are even now looking at other ways in which they might collaborate. “These medical groups are willing to go the extra mile.”
“Intel and other large employers are seeing healthcare costs rise faster than inflation and other costs in our business. The inefficiency of the U.S. healthcare system has become a competitiveness issue for many companies and the country as a whole,” added Corrie Zenzola, Intel’s global benefits thought leader. “Intel is joining with other large employers to play a role in driving systemic change in the way healthcare is delivered.”
Participating in the consortium are the Camino Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, San Jose Medical Group, Santa Clara County Individual Practice Association and Santa Cruz Medical Foundation. Cisco, Intel and Oracle executives chose them because they provide healthcare to a significant number of employees of the three Silicon Valley-based organizations.
“Managing a patient’s health is far better than merely treating a patient’s symptoms,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, president of the NCQA, in a press release. “The difference between the two types of care is access to the right information at the right time. Rewarding physician practices that have invested in the resources to provide 21st-Century care is good common sense. The financial and health benefits are there on the surface.”