Providers were forced to adapt to changing payments and have done so in some ways that have been very positive. For example, new medical technologies and clinical procedures have greatly reduced the pain and disability associated with many procedures. Also, providers have been forced to focus on the content and coordination of clinical services, leading to best practices and clinical pathways. Patients and their families have been required to take on more responsibility for everything from dressing changes and intravenous lines to coordination of care. It is now, more than any time in the modern age of medicine, necessary for the patients to become experts in their own self-care, because health care services have become fragmented.
Information management is important.
Properly applied, it will help providers apply best practices, monitor patient status, maintain continuity of care and identify resources. Investors are ready to support this technology, because it can reach large numbers of people in a consistent way, and so it shall grow. It has long been recognized that a few individuals are responsible for the largest portion of health care costs. Increasingly, these higher costs are in part the result of patients' inabilities to optimally care for themselves. Inappropriate medication use or failure to recognize or effectively communicate changes in condition are often a significant factor in hospitalization.