Preparing for the CMS Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Project

Research continues to find that in-home rehab after joint surgery is as cost-effective and equal in outcomes and patient satisfaction to inpatient rehab facilities.   

The most important takeaway from the latest CMS effort to rein in costs, achieve positive patient outcomes and lower hospital readmission rates and complication rates is that hospitals must now manage the entire episode of care.

CMS’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled-payment program mandates that 790 U.S. hospitals take responsibility for the care quality and total cost of hip and knee replacements, from surgery out through 90 days of rehabilitation and recovery. But the writing is on the wall for all hospitals, health systems and providers: Engaging patients throughout the care continuum—before, during and after surgery—will improve outcomes, decrease readmissions, earn CMS incentive payments and avoid penalties.

The concept that it takes seven interactions—or “touches”—before a person becomes a customer is well documented in the marketing industry. Less is written about how this can apply in a healthcare setting. 

In this era of value-base care, patients are synonymous with customers, and engagements are the new touches. Unlike in marketing—where a touch can simply drive a sale—a touch in healthcare can really impact patient outcomes and the cost of care, build patient satisfaction and confidence and make patients feel involved in their care.

Surely, it’s time to start taking the theory of seven touches into the healthcare realm. I’ll start by offering seven easy ways you can engage/connect with/touch patients. 

A recent study in Pediatrics suggests that patients (in this case, mothers) are not receiving consistent information and advice from their providers—Maternal Report of Advice Received for Infant Care (Eisenberg et al, August 2015)

“Mothers commonly report receiving either no advice or recommendation inconsistent advice from each of the four sources we studied [doctors, birth hospital nurses, family, and media] regarding immunization, breastfeeding, sleep position, sleep location and pacifier use.”

Before you brush off this data as just an attack on overworked nurses and doctors who are drowning in paperwork and EHR integration, I’d like to offer a different perspective.