In Hixny’s 2018 business plan, we set out four areas of focus for the year: core improvements (in people, process and products), growth, alignment with the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY) 2020 Roadmap and innovation. I’d like to share with you just one of the steps we’ve taken toward achieving our goals in those areas.
At the end of February, we assembled 14 key stakeholders from our region’s value-based care community and invited them to Hixny. These were people who work every day to administer health home programs and performing provider systems, interacting constantly with clinicians and organizations to move our health system from one based on the volume of services rendered to one based on the quality of services rendered.
Our goal was to get their feedback about core improvements Hixny has made or is making. First, we wanted to understand how Hixny could be better for them to use and could provide better support. Second, we wanted to help them understand that Hixny has the data to support value-based care—and provides the tools and the electronic health records (EHR) know-how to ensure the data is accessible when it’s needed. And finally, we wanted to understand why, with everything that’s available, are more people not using Hixny?
This was the first meeting of its kind that we’ve held. We frequently gather individual feedback, but this time, we had the opportunity to see the interaction between these individuals who are the boots on the ground for our region’s value-based care efforts. These conversations helped everyone in the room identify where organizations are in alignment with each other and where there are differences. They also helped us learn more about the various stages of understanding about Hixny and its possibilities across organizations and among different types of users.
We started by showing the types of data Hixny has. We made the point that 100 percent of our region’s hospitals participate with Hixny, so the information needed for primary care providers (PCPs), especially, to coordinate post-discharge care is available close to 100 percent of the time. The same is true for the 70 percent of practices in our region who participate with Hixny. Those points alone sparked a lively dialog about what clinicians, support staff and program administrators need and how they are using Hixny.
What We Heard
- Attendees from some organizations suggested that they see Hixny as the pipe that delivers data. They understood that the quality and variety of data in that pipe is largely determined by themselves and their peers in various facilities and practices.
- Support personnel—including care managers, clinical pharmacists in the emergency setting, unit clerks, and administrative and clerical staff—are more likely than physicians to use Hixny to pull data in the clinical setting. Attendees suggested that we work within that community to build champions who know how to use Hixny to get the data doctors need faster, which will in turn build support for Hixny use.
- To support that effort at creating champions, attendees suggested that we enhance the types of support we provide for that group of users, specifically. For example, currently, Hixny provides general training materials. To encourage support staff to change behaviors, protocols and workflows, attendees suggested that we also deliver training materials for specific use cases—for example, “Here’s how you can use Hixny to solve X.”
- Attendees also told us that our in-person presentations about Hixny to assemblies of clinicians or support staff have been received very well. Similarly, our presentations to providers, staff and administrators of value-based care programs have increased understanding of Hixny’s value—and therefore energized and engaged those present. We will be looking into ways to video record future presentations and upload those videos to share with a wider variety of groups.
- The implementation of value-based care is, as we’ve seen previously, happening on a continuum. Some types of organizations, such as PCP practices, are more likely to be shifting to this new way of approaching workflows and patient interaction. Other types are still largely structured to focus on the volume of services provided. As principals within practices and organizations realize that processes need to change to support value-based care, we anticipate that the willingness to adapt workflows and implement Hixny use will continue to increase.
- Some organizations shared exceptional successes. By redesigning processes, they’re finding ways to leverage the data from Hixny to improve a variety of health situations, from the emergency department to the way they follow up on alerts in the field.
Coming Attractions
In the coming months, we’ll be hosting additional meetings among different groups within the community of Hixny users to gather even more perspectives. We’ll also be working to address the needs identified in this first meeting. For now, we’re grateful for the contributions of all those who attended and offered such valuable insights.
If you have feedback about your own use of Hixny and its data in a value-based care setting, please send it to us through the form at the bottom of our Contact Us page (please select “General queries”). We’re always glad to hear about your experiences!
