Read the full article at: www.cio.com
For all the promise surrounding health IT, the adoption of new technologies to improve coordination between patients and care providers remains sluggish, according to new research from Nielsen Strategic Health Perspectives.
In a survey of slightly more than 30,000 consumers and 626 physicians, Nielsen found only modest upticks in the use of technology in the healthcare arena, and also highlighted the stubborn tendency of providers to operate in siloes, rather than embrace the model of coordinated care that many health reform advocates are championing.
“This survey is evidence of the failure of American healthcare to provide coordinated, technologically enabled, high-quality healthcare to the majority of people,” Robert Pearl, chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices, which sponsored the research, said in a statement.
Quite an eye-opening survey that shows technology and “the old ways of doing things” are stalling the industry’s move toward value-based care. Either the technology is not in place in the care setting, or it is not being connected to patients and providers in meaningful ways.
Additionally, a majority of providers still, understandably, provide care in the traditional, fee-for-service model. Are these reasons for despair? Not hardly. Turning the Titanic isn’t something that can be accomplished easily.
With so much at risk, it will be difficult for providers to set aside preconceptions about the change in the system because the former model proved to be extremely successful to their businesses.
Facts and emotional appeals from the HHS and ONC have done little to break down this resistance to change. Further proof will be required.
Finding a new way to think and the confidence to change an entire business model is incredibly difficult.
