Close Gaps in Patient Care with the Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps™ Application

November 3, 2021

Article Summary


With the pandemic fueling increasing financial and clinical demands, health systems need automated tools and processes to deliver cost-effective care without compromising quality. Traditional data infrastructure that delivers delayed insights to clinicians creates additional barriers to better care. Yet, many organizations still use these fragmented systems. Now, with the Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps™ application, organizations can deliver relevant insight to decision makers at the point of care. With accurate, actionable insight embedded directly into the EHR, Embedded Care Gaps empowers clinicians to close gaps in patient care, maximize every patient visit, and operate at the top of their licenses. Furthermore, patients reap the benefits of closing gaps by receiving more complete care through an efficient, well-planned visit.

Gaps in patient care—the difference between the care the patient needs compared to the care they receive—cost the U.S. healthcare system millions annually, wasting significant healthcare resources and contributing to declining health and preventable diseases. Furthermore, the pandemic-induced delays in preventive care and routine screenings have exacerbated patient care gaps and added to existing provider burnout. While organizations juggle care delivery for patients with COVID-19 in a new healthcare landscape, systems are also playing catch up with patients who have fallen behind their standard care treatments.

With patients’ health on the line, healthcare organizations cannot afford to operate on inefficient care processes and guesswork. Yet, many systems do just that because they lack a supportive data infrastructure to deliver relevant patient insight to clinicians at the point of care.

However difficult these established and pandemic-related challenges may seem, healthcare organizations can find their way out of the data abyss and reach more patients with a data-powered solution that puts patients first. An integration engine that delivers analytic insight directly into the EHR workflow empowers clinicians to close patient care gaps in real time and deliver better, more cost-effective care.

The Cost of Gaps in Patient Care: Irreversible Patient Health Decline and Clinician Burnout

Outmoded care operations deliver lagging insights that add to existing gaps in patient care, creating a roadblock to better care delivery. And because clinicians can’t identify these care gaps—due to the lack of timely analytic insight—they can’t close them. As a result, patients continue to receive substandard care.

The consequences of patient care gaps, including missed routine screenings, in-office procedures, and vaccines, are far reaching and dangerous. In some cases, these care delays require unnecessary patient visits, and in worse cases, compromise patients’ health. Additionally, these gaps in care lessen patients’ trust in the care team, lower patient and provider satisfaction, and increase costs for the patient and health system.

Close Gaps in Patient Care with the Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps™ Application

With healthcare’s financial and clinical demands showing no sign of slowing down, organizations increasingly need automated tools to relieve provider burdens and still deliver high-value patient care. The Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps application is a fully EHR-embedded patient-visit solution powered by a world-class rules engine. By delivering the right insight, for the right patient, at the right time, Embedded Care Gaps empowers clinicians to close gaps in patient care, maximize every patient visit, and operate at the top of their license.

Embedded Care Gaps provides tailored information targeted to the clinician and patient that is easy to use and less costly than staffing EHR tool development (Figure 1). The solution also embeds actionable care gap information directly into the EHR based on regulatory measures. Furthermore, by surfacing care gap information related to measures used in value-based programs, providers can close gaps at the point of care helping their organizations qualify for incentives and avoid costly penalties.

gaps in patient care

Figure 1: Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps embeds seamless and actionable care gap information directly into the EHR.

Embedded Care Gaps’ automated process saves time and reduces the clinicians’ administrative workload, helping providers deliver better care before, during, and after the patient visit. This automated, proactive approach allows organizations to easily track measures and reporting requirements year-round, avoiding the last-minute scramble before measures deadlines.

Most importantly, patients also benefit from the Embedded Care Gaps solution, as they receive more complete care and more efficient, well-planned visits. These enhanced patient-clinician interactions increase patient trust and confidence in the care team, thereby boosting likelihood of adhering to the care plan.

The Embedded Care Gaps Application: The Solution to Care Gaps and Wasted Resources

Unlike traditional population health and EHR solutions that lack transparency and require significant maintenance, the Health Catalyst Embedded Care Gaps application leverages the capabilities of a robust rules engine to embed patient insights directly into the EHR, delivering valuable insight to providers at the point of decision making.

Easy access to timely, accurate insight allows organizations to increase revenue by performing appropriate procedures, decrease costs by streamlining visits, and improve each patient’s quality of life. With critical patient insight at their fingertips, clinicians can close gaps in patient care and maximize the value of every patient visit.

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