Exploiting information technology to transform healthcare delivery from volume-of-care to quality-of-care

Many countries are investing heavily in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) both to drive improvements to the quality of care and reduce the cost of healthcare provision. In the US alone, healthcare spending is expected to reach $4.4 trillion by 2018 (1). This rise in cost is unsustainable and approximates to 20% of forecast GDP (2) and over $13,000 annual expenditure for each man, woman and child in the country (3).

The adoption of information technology has the ability to deliver significant savings in the short-term through solutions that help improve healthcare management and delivery. However, the real opportunity is to exploit information technology to facilitate a transformation in the way that healthcare is delivered so that the quality of outcomes can be better assessed. This will enable a shift in incentives and rewards away from volume of care to quality of care. 

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Our experience with early adopters suggests that there are three important aspects to get right early in a major programme of healthcare reform:

• aligning information-sharing designs with health reform ambitions

• making the case for sharing information effectively supported by a common consent model

• using achievable objectives to drive benefit realisation over the long-term.

A clear lesson from the UK National Health Service (NHS) experience is that this is not a journey that is inevitable. Many of the steps challenge individual interests in the interests of long-term goals. Delivering meaningful healthcare reform  requires a clear vision and visible leadership for the way health information is shared and used.

PA Consulting Group's experience includes:

• helping to shape and deliver some of the UK’s NHS programmes in improving the way patient information is stored and shared

• working with a Gulf state government to develop their eHealth strategy, technical framework and implementation plans

• helping NHS Scotland with the Scottish Care Information programme including electronic care records and the infrastructure for sharing information

• delivering performance dashboards for easier access to regional performance information

• supporting medical imaging, electronic records, UK NHS GP-to-GP records transfer service, electronic prescriptions service, cancer screening and both the HealthSpace and UK NHS Choices patient portals.

To discuss strategies for successful implementation of healthcare information in the new healthcare market, please contact us.

Notes:

1. Sebelius, Kathleen: Secretary of US Department of Health and Human Services. “Health Reform in the 21st Century.” Statement to Committee on Ways and Means: May 6, 2009.

2. Calculated from forecasted GDP. Congressional Budget Office.  “Table 1: Economic Projections.” February 15, 2008.

3. Calculated from projected population. US Census. “Table 1: Projections of the Population and Components of Change for the United States: 2010 to 2050.” 2008.