ATLANTA, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ — MDdatacor, Inc., a leader in health care quality management solutions for insurers and health care providers, today announced a new contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) to provide the technology that will support the medical home program. A medical home is a team approach to providing healthcare, where a physician leads a team of healthcare professionals who collectively take responsibility for the continuous care of a patient. This includes acute care, chronic care, preventive services and end-of-life care.
Blue KC has invited internal medicine, family practice and pediatricians in their networks to participate in a two-year medical home initiative, intended to enhance patient care, help maintain or reduce health care costs and to improve physicians’ job satisfaction. The program is scheduled to begin in January 2010. During the initiative, primary care physicians will use MDdatacor’s MDinsight® system to identify opportunities for additional patient care and ensure patients are treated according to best practices as outlined in clinical guidelines.
“We are embarking on this initiative because we believe that a medical home model and access to more complete clinical data will help physicians treat the right patients at the right time, resulting in even better care and outcomes. MDdatacor’s data registry, a critical tool to make this happen, was the most comprehensive we reviewed and came with the strongest recommendations,” said Blake Williamson, Vice President and Senior Medical Director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
The MDinsight system extrapolates clinical data from a physician’s records and analyzes it against evidence-based guidelines to help physicians identify care opportunities among their patients. Care opportunities alert physicians about patients in need of medical tests or follow-up visits for chronic conditions such as diabetes or for preventive care like cancer screenings. The system is unique in that it can also identify patients with test values that are high, such as showing a physician a list of all diabetic patients whose last A1c blood sugar test was above the recommended guidelines.
“Medical home models have the potential to aid reform efforts by reducing overall costs in the U.S. health system. We know this firsthand because of the results our health plan customers have experienced through decreased hospital admissions and emergency room visits, dramatic improvement in physician and patient satisfaction, and a substantial return on investment,” said Tim Roche, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of MDdatacor.
Studies have shown that medical homes can help patients have better health and reduced mortality. Patients with chronic health conditions taken care of in medical home programs are more likely to comply with physician orders and have fewer preventable hospital admissions. Health plan officials will review those interventions that drive improved patient and physician satisfaction, improved quality of care and decreased overall cost of care.
MDinsight uses proprietary technology to automate the collection of patient clinical data from physician practices’ existing disparate data sources, including electronic medical record (EMR), practice management, lab, and registry systems – even transcription – without having to involve system vendors or build expensive interfaces. The aggregation of data from multiple sources provides physicians with the most comprehensive patient data available, which can be shared across all participating providers through a web-based portal. This sharing of data improves care coordination, providing enhanced opportunities for clinical improvement and better patient care.
