Mobile Integration In Healthcare
The Importance of Mobile Integration in Out of Hospital Healthcare
The US healthcare system is known by critics to have enormous costs for patients, tax payers, and society in general, and offers less than impressive health outcomes. Frequently recorded healthcare flaws include lack of access to quality care for many patients, billions of dollars wasted due to inefficient or broken delivery models and expensive administration costs; Inadequate efforts to prevent illness and disease; Ineffective acute and chronic care; and outdated and complex reimbursement plans. The insufficiencies of the healthcare system in the United States are very evident in out of hospital care for patients. This is particularly true for hospice patients, the elderly, and the mobility impaired. Multiple providers offer only niche care during certain hours, which does not match the needs for this patient population. As a result of this, patients who require care in out of business hours are regularly referred to the Emergency Department (ED), even if it is obvious that the patient cannot receive appropriate care in the ED. Furthermore, care gaps, and a lack of post- acute transitional care, make re-admissions to the ED an unfortunate inevitability. This is both undesirable and expensive for patients, their caregivers, and the healthcare …show more content…
system as a whole. (add source here). Mobile Integrated Healthcare Practice (MIHP) is geared to address these gaps in out of hospital care and has potential to make a profound difference in patient treatment and ED re-admissions.
Mobile Integrated Healthcare Practice is a novel healthcare delivery platform intended to serve a range of patients in the out of hospital setting by providing patient centered, team based care using mobile resources. MIHP aims to eliminate the current standard of out of hospital emergency care by providing very specific patient care dependent on their condition or illness. Instead of the patient getting admitted to the ED for something that the ED cannot even treat, the patient is redirected by MIHP to specialized care that they really need and can be more affordable to them as well. Many individuals believe these innovations have the ability to transform EMS from a strictly emergency care service to a value-based mobile healthcare provider that is fully integrated with an array of healthcare and social services partners to improve community health (add source).
While still evolving, MIH programs around the nation are beginning to operate to their full potential and are providing a range of patient based services. These services include sending EMT’s, paramedics, or community paramedics into the homes of patients to help with chronic disease education and management, post-hospital discharge follow-ups to prevent hospital admissions and re-admissions, and to interact with patients in a more personal way to understand what type of treatment is best for the patient. MIH programs will also navigate patients to destinations such as primary care, urgent care, mental health or substance abuse treatment centers instead of emergency departments to avoid costly, unnecessary hospital visits as stated earlier. Providing education to patients about using other telephone services rather than just calling 911 on non-emergent calls is just another example of community involvement (add source).
Mobile integration is growing every year, but there are still challenges that are in store for the future.
To add to the EMS profession’s understanding of the development, characteristics and status of MIH in the United States, NAEMT (National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians) conducted a comprehensive survey in late 2014 of the nation’s currently operating MIH programs. The survey identified more than one-hundred EMS agencies that have worked very hard over the past several years to determine their communities’ needs, build partnerships to launch these groundbreaking programs and contribute to solving the key issues facing American
healthcare.
The US healthcare system is known by critics to have enormous costs for patients, tax payers, and society in general, and offers less than impressive health outcomes. Frequently recorded healthcare flaws include lack of access to quality care for many patients, billions of dollars wasted due to inefficient or broken delivery models and expensive administration costs; Inadequate efforts to prevent illness and disease; Ineffective acute and chronic care; and outdated and complex reimbursement plans. The insufficiencies of the healthcare system in the United States are very evident in out of hospital care for patients. This is particularly true for hospice patients, the elderly, and the mobility impaired. Multiple providers offer only niche care during certain hours, which does not match the needs for this patient population. As a result of this, patients who require care in out of business hours are regularly referred to the Emergency Department (ED), even if it is obvious that the patient cannot receive appropriate care in the ED. Furthermore, care gaps, and a lack of post- acute transitional care, make re-admissions to the ED an unfortunate inevitability. This is both undesirable and expensive for patients, their caregivers, and the healthcare …show more content…
system as a whole. (add source here). Mobile Integrated Healthcare Practice (MIHP) is geared to address these gaps in out of hospital care and has potential to make a profound difference in patient treatment and ED re-admissions.
Mobile Integrated Healthcare Practice is a novel healthcare delivery platform intended to serve a range of patients in the out of hospital setting by providing patient centered, team based care using mobile resources. MIHP aims to eliminate the current standard of out of hospital emergency care by providing very specific patient care dependent on their condition or illness. Instead of the patient getting admitted to the ED for something that the ED cannot even treat, the patient is redirected by MIHP to specialized care that they really need and can be more affordable to them as well. Many individuals believe these innovations have the ability to transform EMS from a strictly emergency care service to a value-based mobile healthcare provider that is fully integrated with an array of healthcare and social services partners to improve community health (add source).
While still evolving, MIH programs around the nation are beginning to operate to their full potential and are providing a range of patient based services. These services include sending EMT’s, paramedics, or community paramedics into the homes of patients to help with chronic disease education and management, post-hospital discharge follow-ups to prevent hospital admissions and re-admissions, and to interact with patients in a more personal way to understand what type of treatment is best for the patient. MIH programs will also navigate patients to destinations such as primary care, urgent care, mental health or substance abuse treatment centers instead of emergency departments to avoid costly, unnecessary hospital visits as stated earlier. Providing education to patients about using other telephone services rather than just calling 911 on non-emergent calls is just another example of community involvement (add source).
Mobile integration is growing every year, but there are still challenges that are in store for the future.
To add to the EMS profession’s understanding of the development, characteristics and status of MIH in the United States, NAEMT (National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians) conducted a comprehensive survey in late 2014 of the nation’s currently operating MIH programs. The survey identified more than one-hundred EMS agencies that have worked very hard over the past several years to determine their communities’ needs, build partnerships to launch these groundbreaking programs and contribute to solving the key issues facing American
healthcare.