Focus on Acute Care, Healthcare Financing, and Interoperability Will Be Essential
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ESO Solutions, the leading data and software company serving emergency medical services, fire departments, and hospitals, today shared the trends it predicts will have the biggest impact on hospitals in 2018: A greater emphasis on evidence-based approaches to acute conditions; healthcare financing changes affecting the way hospitals admit and readmit patients; reshuffling of hospital ownership; and a shift in how patient volume is managed.
"Few areas of healthcare have seen more significant change over the past several years than hospitals," said Allen Johnson, Vice President of ESO HDE and Analytics. "That pattern will continue in 2018."
"There's a fair amount of change on the horizon," added Johnson. "It's essential for hospitals to track and understand evolving trends to stay ahead of challenges. Those that do will be the most successful."
Key Hospital Predictions for 2018:
- Evidence-based care for acute events will continue to be emphasized: From first medical contact to hospital admission through rehab, new evidence-based research will play a key role in the treatment and destination decisions for patients experiencing acute events (e.g., the DAWN study showing benefit of endovascular clot retrieval for up to 24 hours after a stroke). Near real-time (or contemporaneous) access to richer data will enhance physicians' capabilities, provide decision support, and ultimately enhance patient safety by reducing the likelihood of avoidable error.
- Healthcare finance changes will continue to have an impact on admissions and readmissions: Changes in healthcare finance regarding readmissions will influence how systems interact and manage patients across more diagnosis types. Value-based approaches to patient management will continue, with the possibility that out-of-hospital entities in some communities will be included in bundled payment models and/or care planning. In one such instance, facilities working with EMS can proactively manage patients in the most appropriate setting to maximize efficiency and reduce unnecessary readmissions.
- Changes in hospital ownership will increase the need for interoperability: As hospitals look to control costs and consolidate market presence, ownership will change in some markets. The shuffling of ownership will create a greater need for interoperability and sharing of information across new partners to bridge data gaps between electronic medical record (EMR) systems.
- Managing patient volume will increase in importance: As financial pressure on hospital systems continues, understanding and managing patient volume will be essential to ensure hospitals meet financial goals. This will include an ongoing shift in marketing strategies to appeal to high-value patients directly through various channels, including EMS. Sharing quality data and implementing alignment strategies with partners – physicians, EMS, etc. – will allow hospitals to create systems of care that deliver the right patients to the right facility at the right time, promoting volume for the facility and excellent outcomes for patients.
Download the 2018 Hospital Predictions whitepaper here.
About ESO Solutions
ESO Solutions, Inc., is dedicated to improving community health and safety through the power of data. Since its founding in 2004, the company has been a pioneer in electronic patient care records (ePCR) software for emergency medical services, fire departments and ambulance services. Today, ESO serves more than 13,000 agencies throughout the U.S. The company's healthcare, public safety and technology experts deliver the most innovative software and data solutions on the market, including the industry-leading ESO Electronic Health Record (EHR); ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE), the first-of-its-kind healthcare interoperability platform; record management system (RMS) for fire departments; and ambulance revenue recovery/billing software. ESO is also playing a leading role in helping EMS provider organizations across the nation successfully transition to NEMSIS Version 3 and new state standards for electronic patient care reporting.
ESO will bring focused sessions that support the needs of EMS, fire departments and hospital customers to Wave 2018, its annual user group and industry conference, February 1-2, 2018, in Austin, TX.
ESO is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.esosolutions.com.
SOURCE ESO Solutions, Inc.
