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Advanced Technology in Post-Acute Care May Pose Threat to Traditional Facilities

Year after year technology continues to progress in the health care industry—and for good reason. Advanced technology not only improves the quality of care that medical professionals are able to provide, but it also enhances the overall experience for patients.

Technology in Post-Acute Care“Technology is providing [the world] with an unprecedented opportunity. We have the opportunity to create phenomenally better healthcare systems in terms of delivery, outcomes, and reducing costs,” said Jeffrey Bauer, Ph.D. to TeleTech.

But, with these technology in post-acute care advancements comes the cost of implementing them—something smaller facilities may not be able to manage.

According to a survey done by market research company Black Book, of a surveyed group of 410 post-acute care providers, 7% said their organization’s information technology and patient data exchanges are currently only moderate or occasionally utilized and only 3% said they are currently advanced or utilized daily.

Technology in post-acute care should be used regularly, not rarely.

Of these post-acute care providers, 92% believe that incorporating an information technology platform for patient data sharing and comprehensive care would improve the organization’s financial position and enhance its ability to excel under Accountable Care and lower fee-for-service reimbursements.

Considering Medicare spending is projected to reduce by $400 billion between 2015 and 2024—more than $34 billion of that reduction coming from reduced post-acute care payments—it seems facilities need all the help they can get in terms of financial position.

For 2014, only 8% of standalone or single unit post-acute care providers had finances budgeted for technology purchases and improvements. In comparison, 84% of large chain post-acute care providers have allocated finances to technology improvements this year—this puts the standalone facilities at a major disadvantage.

In fact, because of this drastic misalignment between technology budgets for single unit and large chain facilities, 54% of the single unit providers anticipate being acquired by a more technology superior organization as early as 2015.

So why are organizations not utilizing the technologies they feel can help them improve?

Apparently the solutions have quite an awareness issue in the industry. Of all acute-care providers, 78% claimed they aren’t even aware of any technology companies or products that could address the impending issues.

The future of the health care industry is highly focused on seamless data sharing across all care settings and using the acquired data to provide greater care for patients. The post-acute care facilities that can’t keep up with those advancements simply won’t make the cut.

The General Medicine, Post-Hospitalist Company’s physicians specialize in post-hospitalist care—let them help improve your post-acute care facility. Contact us today.

Tom Prose
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