Reflecting on the New Normal in Healthcare

The virus won’t go away, but there is a path to normalcy.

Fall is often a time of reflection, and for those of us working in healthcare this year has given us plenty to reflect on. While COVID continues to challenge us in numerous ways, it has also produced the silver lining of inspiring healthcare innovation across the country. At Repisodic we have been humbled to partner with the hospital case management and care transition community to play a small part of that innovation. In the spirit of reflection, we wanted to share some key learnings from the past year.

Case Management is CORE

Maintaining hospital capacity has been critical during the surges. It truly was case management who led the way in discharging patients safely and quickly prior to, during, and transition out of this pandemic. If the case management department was not highly visibility and a priority among hospital leadership pre-COVID, it is more than ever now.  Leaders are understanding the importance and investment needed to staff and optimize this critical part of the hospital workflow and function. Case management is the CORE to the hospital and patient transition function.

Virtual Care is Here to Stay

Adoption of tools that enable virtual care and communication options at discharge has been accelerated during the pandemic. Healthcare has been on the move towards a more virtual, streamlined experience and now it has been truly catapulted forward 5-10+ years quicker by the COVID19 pandemic and that trend shows no sign of abating.

Patient Acuity at Discharge is High

Patients are transitioning to post-acute care facilities and the home setting at greater acuity than ever before.  Finding high quality, capable post-acute care providers who can manage these more clinically complex patients outside of the hospital is becoming a more complex task. Knowing and having access to post-acute care providers with these capabilities needs to be simplified and streamlined now. 

Interoperability is no longer optional

CMS continues to build on its roadmap to improve interoperability and health information access for patients, providers, and payers. These regulations mandate change in how clinical and administrative information is exchanged between payers, providers and patients, and will support more efficient care coordination when implemented appropriately.

Medicare Discharge Planning Rules are Coming Back

Along with the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule, we expect the discharge planning rules to come back before the end of the year. With these changes, comes changes in process and communication once again

This global pandemic forced us all to take a step back and rethink our priorities, our way of doing business, how we communicate, and how we provide value to our partners.  At Repisodic, we pride ourselves on being ahead of our time and a reliable partner to our hospital and healthcare community. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what the “new normal” is for you, what challenges you see, and if we can help in any way with your care transitions moving forward.