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WHEN PATIENTS COLLABORATE ON TREATMENT PLANS, THE SENSE OF PLAN CO-OWNERSHIP CAN LEAD TO A HIGHER LIKELIHOOD OF ADHERENCE AND BETTER OUTCOMES.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has laid out an approach to optimizethe healthcare system deemed the “Triple Aim.”2 The IHI believes we mustsimultaneously pursue three dimensions: improving the patient’s experienceof care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs. Topromote the triple aim, payers are pushing forward “value-based” reimbursementbased on the quality of care. To properly take advantage of these value-basedprograms, practices must begin to engage in population health management.This transformation requires not only a change in philosophical view, butsignificant investments in new organizational, workflow, and IT processes.

An EHR should “become invisible to us,” said Steven Schiebel, M.D., of Pediatric Associates, a large eight-location practice based in Bellevue, Washington, summing up what providers really want from their EHRs. Dr. Schiebel likened it to driving a car: you don’t think about it, you just do it.