The Premier Accountable Care Implementation Collaborative has released a roadmap for IT systems to back up accountable care organizations through five evolutionary stages as they become more sophisticated and effective, according to a release from Premier.
The collaborative's Population Health Data Management work group, made up of chief information officers at participating hospitals, developed the five stages, including three final stages that no organization has achieved yet:
1. Transaction. At this stage, the ACO can use IT capabilities like electronic health records to support individual providers in delivering care and measuring outcomes. Many organizations have already reached this level, but it is only the first step in realizing the ACO's full potential.
2. Interaction. ACOs at this level have IT connectivity allowing providers at different sites to exchange information, and the organization is capable of using process measures. Some hospitals in the Premier collaborative are already moving to this stage.
3. Integration. Care coordination capabilities improve and the organization can begin measuring health status. From here on, the stages of ACO evolution have not been attained yet and the software to back them up has not been developed yet.
4. Collaboration. Care coordination becomes seamless and the organization can give feedback to patients and providers.
5. Transformation. The organization achieves the "Triple Aim" goals of improving health of the population, enhancing the patient care experience and controlling per capita cost of care.
Premier is working with IBM to develop a technology platform that would support this evolutionary model. The collaborative currently includes 28 health systems with more than 120 hospitals and 5,000 physicians providing care for 1.4 million patients across 23 states.
Read the Premier release on ACOs.
Read more coverage of ACOs and IT:
- 21 Questions for ACOs Regarding Analytics
- Analytics for ACOs: Measuring the Depth Before Diving In
- Engaging Physicians With IT
The collaborative's Population Health Data Management work group, made up of chief information officers at participating hospitals, developed the five stages, including three final stages that no organization has achieved yet:
1. Transaction. At this stage, the ACO can use IT capabilities like electronic health records to support individual providers in delivering care and measuring outcomes. Many organizations have already reached this level, but it is only the first step in realizing the ACO's full potential.
2. Interaction. ACOs at this level have IT connectivity allowing providers at different sites to exchange information, and the organization is capable of using process measures. Some hospitals in the Premier collaborative are already moving to this stage.
3. Integration. Care coordination capabilities improve and the organization can begin measuring health status. From here on, the stages of ACO evolution have not been attained yet and the software to back them up has not been developed yet.
4. Collaboration. Care coordination becomes seamless and the organization can give feedback to patients and providers.
5. Transformation. The organization achieves the "Triple Aim" goals of improving health of the population, enhancing the patient care experience and controlling per capita cost of care.
Premier is working with IBM to develop a technology platform that would support this evolutionary model. The collaborative currently includes 28 health systems with more than 120 hospitals and 5,000 physicians providing care for 1.4 million patients across 23 states.
Read the Premier release on ACOs.
Read more coverage of ACOs and IT:
- 21 Questions for ACOs Regarding Analytics
- Analytics for ACOs: Measuring the Depth Before Diving In
- Engaging Physicians With IT