Technology vendors and providers agree that digital health is needed to improve provider workflow, increase access to care, and avoid getting in the way.
Best Buy’s goal in healthcare is to reduce operational challenges and allow physicians to deliver care, said president Deborah Di Sanzo at a Wednesday panel at the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Chicago. The retail giant works with health systems to enable connectivity, supply medical equipment and provide technical support for hospital-at-home programs.
“We’re never going to care,” Di Sanzo said. “We’re never going to be a pharmacy. We do technology. I want technology to work for that nurse to primary care physician.
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Di Sanzo said health systems need what is essentially missing technology in order for these programs to work more effectively so that physicians and patients can be front and center.
retail company has grown its current health division Through agreements with several health systems including Advocate Health, Geisinger Health and Mount Sinai Health System. It acquired at-home care platform company Current Health for $400 million In October 2021.
While technology and artificial intelligence will help solve the country’s care needs, the industry first needs to improve its clinical processes and redefine team-based care strategies, said VillageMD’s on the same panel said co-founder, president and CEO Tim Barry. Otherwise, healthcare organizations are simply investing in technology and designing for a system that continues to fail, he said.
VillageMD, a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Acquired provider organization Summit Health-CityMD in $8.9 billion deal In January.
“We just wrote a really big check to become a multispecialty group, not just a primary-care based organization,” Barry said. “And we did it because we believe we can create an overall better experience for our patients by becoming multispeciality, creating greater connectivity and investing in technology that allows us to work with all different types of organizations.” Is.”
Barry said VillageMD, which has more than 200 co-located clinics with Walgreens in 26 markets, uses technology to create more touchpoints between physicians and patients. The company is actively looking at the data to identify risk and prevent adverse events and readmissions.
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These solutions are intended to help physicians focus on the practice of medicine, Barry said, although doctors may find it difficult to buy into artificial intelligence.
“It’s a matter of saying, ‘This is the operating procedure we’re going to execute, every single day, every single patient, as if it were our own parent,'” Barrie said. “Compared to the rest of the industry, I think we’re advanced, and I still give us a B-minus because we’re not doing well enough.”
During the pandemic, a big part of the allure of technology has been its ability to address workforce shortages. Di Sanzo said Best Buy has seen many nurses leave their clinical practice to join its Geek Squad team as a way to reduce burnout.
Health systems need to re-imagine clinical roles from a human-centered design approach so that physicians and patients can better manage their lives, said Andrea Walsh, president and CEO of HealthPartners, an integrative provider and insurance nonprofit in Bloomington, Minnesota. needs can be better met.
Walsh said a digital solution designed for the medical field embedded in the system’s electronic health records is not sufficient. The entire infrastructure will have to be re-wired to be consumer-driven and more accessible to patients and providers, he said.
“One of the challenges we face in creating tolerable practices is that technology doesn’t get in the way of patient care and that technology supports the efficiency of the practice,” Walsh said on the panel.