How ACOs Can Improve the Quality of Care

ACOs and similar organizations need to make sure that they provide patients with a base level of care. Which means that as an organization, you need to maintain a certain level of healthcare costs and service quality. For this reason, ACOs need to consider the cost of care, level of consumer engagement, and coordination between physicians. For example, factors like the lack of communication between providers and patients can often lead to redundant services. Which means that you end up with unwanted healthcare expenses. Additionally, this situation can potentially decrease the patient’s satisfaction and overall outcomes. So how do you improve the quality of care for patients?



Improve Your Patient Engagement

Today, everyone has easy access to information like the cost of healthcare services and the quality to expect. For this reason, ACOs need to open the opportunity for patients to be involved in their care plan. After all, they are entitled to make decisions regarding their personal health. To put it simply, better patient engagement provides the following benefits:

• Patients become more knowledgeable with their health, which encourages them to take more proactive actions to better themselves. As a result, patients can maintain better levels of care and you get fewer ER visits.

• Practitioners can make better choices when providers and patients have a platform where they can share their ideas. For example, some organizations offer patient portals where patients can digitally review their healthcare data and communicate with providers. As a result, you get better practitioner and patient relationships and ultimately more customer retention.

• Talking with patients first hand gives your physicians more chances of implementing the most suitable and cost-efficient care possible. Which means that you can minimize costs and take advantage of revenues and incentives. 
  
  

How to Improve Patient Engagement

As shown above, ACOs have a lot to gain when they improve the communication between physicians and their patients. So here are some aspects of patient engagement that you can focus on improving:

• Encourage your providers to be more transparent with the costs and quality of care.

• Share your care plan with your patients so they can engage in planning and decision making.

• Make your care plan accessible to your patients. A good way to do this is by providing a platform like an online patient portal where patients can access information like care plans, authorizations, and providers.

• Listen to your patients. Encourage practitioners to collaborate with patients and make shared decisions for better outcomes. After all, choosing the best care for both parties means minimizing redundant services and unnecessary costs.
  
  

Improve Your Physician Alignment

To improve the quality of care for patients, you need to make sure that your physicians are on the right page. After all, a lot of costs come from redundant services and the lack of coordination between different providers. In other words, ACOs need to establish a high level of care coordination if they want to succeed. In fact, we have a few tips on how to improve your physician alignment.

Standardize Your Care

You can start by making sure that the providers within your network follow a certain level of care. Additionally, the less diverse the services, the easier it is for everyone to keep track of the patient’s care.



Proper Compliance

Any organization that deals with healthcare needs to follow strict compliance and regulations. With this in mind, ACOs need to make sure that providers within their network are complying with industry regulations and guidelines. 

Luckily, you can manage this by keeping track of your network and conducting regular audits. In fact, some Management Services Organizations (MSOs) like Coordinated Health provide compliances services for ACOs and similar organizations. Which means that Coordinate Health can oversee your network and make sure that everyone is complying with regulations and payer requirements so you can stay up-to-date with industry standards and minimize the risks of penalties.



Expand Your Workforce

Finally, you can also improve the quality of care and patient outcomes by securing your workforce. And by this, we mean that you need to make sure your organization is fully capable of handling all the processes that ACOs face. After all, situations like understaffing can cause severe workflow issues in healthcare environments. Similarly, ACOs can also fail when they are overloaded with diverse processes. That’s why it’s advisable for organizations like ACOs to rely on third-party service providers for help. For example, some organizations offer services like utilization management, contracting, compliance, and more. So if your organization is facing problems, it’s a good idea to expand your network and rely on other organizations for assistance.



Why Choose Coordinated Health MSO?

Coordinated Health MSO is a management services organization that offers comprehensive management and administrative solutions for organizations within the healthcare industry. We utilize advanced technological solutions and innovative management techniques to provide diverse services that organizations like ACOs and IPAs need.

Coordinated Health MSO offers the following services to improve the quality of care for your patients:

• Call Center for Members and Providers - We provide a 24/7 call center service for your members, patients, and providers. Which means that you can have a qualified staff that’s fully dedicated to assist your clientele anytime. Additionally, we track and log out calls to make follow ups and references as easy as possible.

• Quality Management - We offer a comprehensive quality management program that can help you and your network maintain your standards. Our program ensures that you get consistent evaluations over member care and services so your network can exceed health plan benchmarks for quality care programs. 

• Compliance - We provide strict compliance monitoring to ensure that your managed care network is compliant with payer requirements and quality standards. We make sure that your network is up-to-date in healthcare laws, regulations, and guidelines. Which means that you can significantly minimize risks and ultimately improve the quality of care for your patients.
  
  

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