By Ana Mola, PhD, RN, ANP-C, MAACVPR | January 25, 2018
A growing number of organizations are joining the march to value-based care (VBC) to provide higher-quality care at lower cost and enhancing the patient experience across care settings. There were several presentations at the recent AACVPR Annual Meeting on the delivery of VBC management in cardiac rehabilitation with similar perspectives of VBC within pulmonary rehabilitation services. To highlight, VBC management is a model based on ensuring that all activities carried out by a hospital, program and personnel are justified by adding value to the healthcare encounter and patient experience. The tenets of this management approach are the following:
- Creating value in ways to actually increase maximum future value aligned with healthcare current practices and strategies
- Managing for value that aligns with governance, change management, organizational culture, communication and leadership in a framework of shared mission, vision and goals
- Measuring value (valuation) of the services to analyze which ones are evidence-based practice and provide the highest quality at the lowest cost
The Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation Team can create VBC by aligning quality and safety, which is a national priority in healthcare. The domains of quality are safety, timely, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and patient centric. The following are a few examples of quality and safety strategies that cardiopulmonary programs can provide across the phases of rehabilitation care:
- Safety − Enhancing medication reconciliation across care transitions/settings (Phase II and III)
- Timely − Decreasing hospital length of stay; early mobilization and self care-education (Phase I)
- Effectiveness & Efficiency − Decreasing the need for high-cost post-acute services (right patient for right setting at the right time) (All Phase)
- Effectiveness & Efficiency − Preventing avoidable readmissions (Phase II and III)
- Effectiveness & Efficiency − Implementing and evaluating the 20 AACVPR turn key strategies for referral, enrollment and adherence- e.g D2S (discharge to start) (Phase II)
- Patient Centric − Improving the patient experience (All Phases)
- Patient Centric − Creating lifelong health / wellness (All Phases)
Take the opportunity now to discuss with your team where you are in this VBC trajectory and how your program is aligning with the national priority of “quality healthcare.” You will hear more about VBC management and the R2R turnkey strategies in the near future in various communication venues to optimize your program performances!