The modern health care system has evolved into an enormous behemoth of almost unimaginable size and complexity. More than $3.5 trillion circulates through the overall health system annually – that’s trillion with a “T.” It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Our health care system is producing modern miracles every day, saving lives, treating illness and allowing people to live longer and healthier lives today than at any time in history.
But providers of health services face unprecedented challenges involving information processing. That includes documentation, regulation compliance, keeping insurance forms in order, collecting payments, making profits, keeping accurate patient records and much more. In all this, outcome measures in healthcare have shown to be of critical importance.
An outcome measure in healthcare is basically a measurement of how well a specific provider is serving the needs of patients. An example might be knowing the precise percentage of patients who recovered completely as a result of a certain kind of surgery. Healthcare outcomes are measured for the treatment of every possible condition. Considering all the illnesses doctors treat every day, one can easily get an idea of how much information quickly accumulates.
Thus, it’s not difficult to see why the health care industry is seeking help in the form of powerful high-tech solutions to handle astronomical amounts of information. It’s almost a given now that hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, mental health care entities and others are turning to outside IT specialists to help with handling complex data systems.
Healthcare IT providers have a four-point goal in terms of outcome measures in healthcare. The first is Improvement in patient care experience. The second is an improvement in the overall health of all patient populations. The third is reducing the cost of healthcare and the fourth is reducing professional burnout among doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists and other providers of health services.
