What Is Risk Stratification

For those unfamiliar with the term, risk stratification is simply the process of identifying high risk patients, or those likely to be of high risk, from a patient population. The general theory is that by identifying high-risk patients before surgery, physicians and care teams can either  take actions to minimize possible complications, or they can postpone the surgery altogether until existing risk factors have been reduced.

Currently, the healthcare industry uses a number of different methods to stratify risk based on a number of different reasons. Some, if not all, may sound familiar.  They include: Charlson Comorbidity Measure, BMI, Hierarchical Condition Categories, Elder Risk A, etc. Reviewing actual historical data can also provide a significant contribution to the overall assessment.  Each option has its own merits.

Much like the idea behind diversifying a stock portfolio, DocSpera realized that combining a number of these methods into a single solution would likely yield more reliable and consistent outcomes.  As a result, DocSpera recently introduced a risk assessment tool that automatically calls out a high-risk patient based off of the combined results of a number of risk assessment tests. It goes on to explain what metrics were used to get to that conclusion, and the level of confidence behind its assertion. All the information analyzed for the assessment is instantly gathered from a combination of real-time sources such as EMR data, available patient social determinant data, CMS data, and patient reported data.

The net result is a unique statistical metric that physicians and care teams can reference to aid in their overall patient care decisions. Using a combination of data points, the goal is to minimize complications and improve the outcomes for a given patient population.

Read More

DocSpera Partners with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Blue Button to Improve Health

DocSpera, the leading surgical care coordination platform, has partnered with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to bring Blue Button 2.0 to medical providers on the DocSpera network. With Blue Button 2.0, providers now have the opportunity to access four years of Medicare Part A, B & D data for an estimated 53 million beneficiaries. The information includes drug prescriptions, primary care treatment and cost, and Medicare coverage details. A full list of available data can be seen here. This feature empowers surgeons to improve surgical outcomes while lowering the costs. Data history enabled by Blue Button will facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers, speed up diagnosis and treatment as well as drive decision support.

Blue Button is a big step forward in patient care collaboration and coordination. It lets patients, providers and software services use the vast, yet often difficult to access, patient health data to drive improved healthcare outcomes. Through DocSpera’s new partnership with Blue Button, patients can now obtain their personal health information and share it with a specific healthcare provider of their choice for a more personalized level of care.

“DocSpera’s partnership with Blue Button is another example of how we improve surgical episode transparency and continue to strengthen patient risk stratification for our surgeon customers to deliver improved and more customized patient care.” said Sy Fahimi, CEO of DocSpera.

By enabling Blue Button, DocSpera is allowing its surgeon members to access the patient consented medical history data to share and power improved risk stratification through DocSpera’s decision support platform. Integration of Blue Button, along with the episodic data captured within DocSpera’s platform, allows the company to provide insights and analytics to empower surgeons to make better decisions via accurate data and therefore save time and reduce cost while improving the quality of care.

Patients in parallel, will have access and control over their health care data as well as benefit from a faster, better and more cost-effective care.

“We are able to offer comprehensive, automated and instant solution for our surgeons to see their patient’s medical and medication history before their surgical consultation; our current BlueButton integrated pilots have demonstrated significant value for our users” stated Samuel Ethiopia, COO of DocSpera.

Click here to access the PR.

Want to learn more about integrating with Blue Button 2.0? Click the button below to send us a message.

Read More