Patient Flow as Health Care Delivery Changes

This was also posted on a LinkedIn Group I co-manage Patient Flow for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations. It's more esoteric than what you will usually find in Lots of Dots and Spots, but I thought that maybe you might like to see that health care organizations which have their focus on sick care, now have incentives to take leadership roles in the health of their communities.

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I’ve spent the last couple of days developing three presentations about the big picture of patient flow. All three focus on the responses, changes and challenges arising as organizations implement new services and programs to address health reform… the move from volume based to value based care.   

For the record, my personal big picture looks from the Patient’s perspective that everything is about Wellness… getting me, getting every person to optimal wellbeing. And, from the Organization’s perspective… ensuring that every individual gets the right care while the organization operates efficiently and effectively. With health reform, these perspectives… the focus on the delivery of care and the engagement of the individual to attain optimal wellbeing merge, like the proverbial, two sides of the same health care dollar coin.

From the individual’s perspective the focus remains on wellness; as the organization flips it, population health lands heads up. In response to regulatory and financial carrots and sticks, Organizations must take a leadership role and a partnership role in improving the health of the community they serve. It’s easy to surmise that this will result in new relationships with organizations and individuals in the community, different discussions in board rooms and senior management, new tactics for community engagement, marketing and community services involved in patient flow committees, revisiting goals for wellness and post-acute services, and metrics and data all around.

My point? First, I’m sick of PowerPoint. Ok, beyond that, as we talk about Patient Flow, let’s expand our view.  Let’s include the thought that patient flow begins with the individual at home, (all of us) wanting to be healthy and living fully. Let’s include discussions about what happens when they leave acute care and need encouragement and support to recover, regain health or live optimally while managing a disease. With the move to value-based care and especially with the growth in population health management, Patient Flow is not just through put or improved capacity anymore.