This article is sponsored by WellSky. In this Voices Interview, Home Health Care News sits down with Tim Ashe, Chief Clinical Officer, WellSky, to learn about patient engagement and the role it plays in better health outcomes and whole-person care. He explains why it is important to have patients and families play an active role in their treatment and wellness plans, and he talks about the benefits of patient engagement tools for both patients and clinicians. He also discusses some of the latest developments in patient engagement technologies.

Home Health Care News: What career experiences do you most draw from in your role today?

Tim Ashe: In the early innings of my clinical career, my role as a bedside nurse eventually led me into hospital management and other subsequent leadership roles in the home health, hospice and personal care spaces. My experience on the provider side gave me an incredible amount of respect and appreciation for the work that clinicians and care providers do in home health, hospice and community-based settings.

It is unbelievably challenging to independently manage patients while interacting with families and providing high-quality, highly engaged and customized care to people in such a broad spectrum of care settings.

My experience on the front line is something that I’ve carried with me throughout my entire career. I have a deep appreciation for care coordination and management, and it pushes me to optimize care, engagement and high-quality results.

Why is it important to have patients and families play an active role in their treatment and wellness plans?

We as an industry have been working for decades to drive ownership from a patient and self-care point of view. When patients and families play an active role in their care by engaging with providers, their satisfaction level is certainly higher and there are fewer complications, which results in better overall outcomes. When patients and families are engaged in the care planning process, it leads to improved communication, increased collaboration and a higher degree of patient-centered care over time.

From a reimbursement standpoint, it could also be important. Most everyone understands the benefit of these solutions, but it has been difficult to quantify the financial impact. Later this year CMS will require home health agencies to report the use of telemedicine technology in services, signaling a potential shift in how virtual care is accepted and, eventually, reimbursed. That’s just one reason patient engagement technology is becoming more than just a “nice to have.”

What role does technology play in connecting patients and families with caregivers and community services, and how does it connect medical and community service providers?

The opportunity to provide whole-person care requires us to knit together a fabric that connects traditional medical providers with community-based organizations that are focused on social determinants of health. Technology, interoperability and connectivity are all playing a role in closing the gaps that have historically limited individuals’ access to the right services at the right time.

Providers rely on technology to deliver the highest quality care while increasing the visibility of an individual’s needs in their home. Whether that’s through remote monitoring or patient engagement tools, providers can more effectively follow changes in condition and intervene as needed. Combined with predictive analytics and AI, clinicians can operate at the top of their license by using best practices and understanding the true nature of a patient with insights they might have otherwise not had.

What are some of the latest developments in patient engagement technologies?

There has been some remarkable progress in telehealth and other digital health care advancements in the post-acute space, and quite a bit of effort to ensure patients and families are able to leverage every digital tool at their disposal. These include video visits that launch directly from an EHR, guided condition management programs, and other tools that facilitate real-time communication and connection. On the provider side, AI is being integrated into these platforms to make patient-level and population-level data more accessible, which helps care team members better manage patient activities and more easily identify needed interventions, which is particularly important when care is being delivered outside of a facility setting.

These tools that help drive collaboration and data sharing, and pinpoint interventions are a win for every stakeholder, because we can now reach patients in both a meaningful and highly efficient manner. Then as we start to add social determinants of health into the mix, technology can help provide a broader view of whole-person care.

How does patient engagement improve health and wellness outcomes while addressing whole-person care?

As we understand more about whole-person care relative to patient needs, we can coordinate that across a community and weave together traditional medical services, human services, spiritual health and community-based organizations to create a very sophisticated infrastructure. From there, the sky’s the limit. An individual provider can partner with other community-based organizations to make sure that patients are receiving the right services at the right time. Whether those are clinical or social in nature, it’s important that we start collecting that data to build more holistic care plans.

How do patient engagement tools benefit both patients and clinicians?

Patients gain insight not only into their own condition, but also into the care that they are receiving. They feel more empowered and more in control, which is something we know patients and families really struggle with in the home-based care space especially.

Patient engagement tools enable providers to monitor a patient’s condition and their journey across time. It allows us to intervene when it’s truly needed, as opposed to creating schedules that are more habitual in nature. This leads to a reduction in unnecessary visits and an increase in the efficiency of care planning, which means more engaged and satisfied patients.

We know agencies are struggling with resources, and with the introduction of value-based purchasing, there is even more pressure to achieve high-quality outcomes. Patient engagement technologies are a win-win for providers and patients as we work together to connect all of the dots and drive outcomes.

Finish this sentence: “In the home-based care industry, 2023 will be the year of…”

… interoperable, connected care.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In today’s value-based care environment, WellSky helps providers, payers, health systems, and community organizations solve tough challenges, improve collaboration for growth, harness the power of data analytics, and achieve better outcomes by further connecting clinical and social care. Learn more at wellsky.com/patients-families/ 

The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].