In 1967, the American Academy of Pediatrics first introduced the concept of “medical home.” At the time, the thought was to have a centralized place where the totality of a child’s medical records could be archived.
Since the introduction of the medical home concept 45 years ago, the concept (and the term) has undergone several definition changes. As an increasing number of healthcare organizations look to establish greater efficiencies, the medical home model is making a comeback. Depending on who you talk to, there are several definitions of what medical home is and how it works. The central tenet of what has become the modern medical home, however, is that it is patient-centric and provides a more holistic view of patient care.
LVM Systems has monitored this trend and believes healthcare call centers are in a great position to help the medical home concept thrive.
“Working with our clients, we have found that our software manages many aspects of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH), but very few organizations are using the software in that manner,” said Mark Dwyer, COO. “Healthcare call centers have a great opportunity to work with the team in the coordination of care when establishing their medical home program.”
LVM Systems, a leading provider of healthcare call center software solutions, features a robust software suite – Centaurus – that can manage many aspects of the medical home concept. Because Centaurus is highly customizable, it can adapt to an organization’s unique application of their medical home.
LVM Systems’ Centaurus healthcare call center software features several modules that help you effectively manage your organization’s medical home program. The following is a sample of how Centaurus can help manage your processes. These modules represent the types of tools needed to establish an effective medical home program.
- Follow-Up Queue: Electronically pre-load patients for follow-up within 24 to 48 hours of their discharge or treatment. This module includes the ability to document unreached patients and assign acuity based on diagnosis-related groups.
- Personalized Queue (CCV): View and manage patient load from your staff’s own queue.
- Instructions and Scripting: Provide instructions for your staff that allows them to manage patients in a structured and standardized way.
- Triage: When your patients experience symptoms, Centaurus features an assessment and clinical content module with the Schmitt/Thompson telephone triage guidelines. Patient charts can be sent to the receiving facility.
- Text Providers or Facilities (Answering Service): Provide easy access to providers’ and facilities’ contact information to support triage, transfers, and other communications. Contacts are tracked so no one falls through the cracks. Report on length of time for a return call.
- Health Information: Email additional health information for self-care via secured messages to the patient.
- Medication Reconciliation (Drug Utilization): Compare medications prescribed in the hospital with medications at home and insure your patients are taking the correct medications in the correct dosages.
- Service Referral: Refer patients to resources for transportation, meal service, pharmacy, and other social services.
- Physician Referral: For those patients who need follow-up with a specialist or need to become established with a primary care physician, you can refer them to an in-network physician who is available to take new patients.
- Class Registration: Enroll patients in your available classes (for example, diabetes education or Eat Heart Healthy). You can also schedule them with your heart failure or diabetes education specialists.
- WebLink: Following discharge, your patients can access an online satisfaction survey via Centaurus’ WebLink.
- Surveys: Conduct, analyze, and act upon quality-of-life, satisfaction, and quality measures using surveys. You can conveniently link to health education, triage, services, and other resources from within a given survey. You can also track and trend results for historical perspectives.
- Disease Management: Perhaps one of the greatest arguments for a medical home program is the ability to help chronically affected patients manage their care. With Centaurus, you can enroll your patients in the diabetes, heart failure, CAD, COPD, or asthma programs. Educators can follow up on a scheduled or ad-hoc basis and gather important measures, provide additional information, and refer patients to your in-network specialists, classes, and services on an as-needed basis.
- Transfer Center (Hospital Transfer): When your patients need to be moved from one facility to another or admitted from outside the network, Centaurus helps you manage the process. You can track all contacts and the length of time from start to finish. Also, you can report on those referrals and the payers associated with them. The software also sends thank you notes to those who made the referral.
- Outcome Reports: You can choose from standard reports or customize your own to quantify the success of your medical home program.
As the definition and practice of the medical home concept evolves, LVM’s Centaurus software is primed to adapt to any changes. This is true not only at the broad concept level, but at the individual organization level.
“We understand that each organization wants to establish a medical home program that reflects their operating realities,” Dwyer said. “As organizations develop new and exciting approaches to their PCMH model, LVM will be there to support their vision.”
[From the June/July 2012 issue of AnswerStat magazine]