If you work in healthcare, you probably know that U.S. News & World Report recently announced its Best Hospitals list for 2018–’19. The company evaluates more than 5,000 hospitals and awards winners in a variety of categories and specialties.

While some debate the list’s merit, hospital leaders and healthcare consumers surely pay attention to the rankings. And they should. The list is part of a bigger picture. It rewards hospitals that achieve lower costs and better patient outcomes.

For our part, we were thrilled that hospitals using innovative patient engagement solutions are being honored among this year’s “Best Hospitals.”

During a care episode, providers traditionally deliver treatment through a series of independent, face-to-face interactions. For patients, however, the care episode begins prior to these interactions and continues during and after medical appointments or hospital stays.

In other words, face-to-face interactions are only one part of a patient’s care continuum.

Meaningful patient-provider interactions are increasingly important during the pre-op preparation phase of total joint replacement, one of the most common and costly surgeries in the U.S. today. Patients need to know what to expect and how to best prepare for the surgery and recovery period ahead. Miscommunication and forgotten instructions can lead to day-of-surgery cancellations, which have a significant impact on the provider’s bottom line.  

Ongoing patient-provider interactions throughout the entire episode of care can help prevent a surgery cancellation. These interactions are most effective when supported by direct patient activation technology, which educates, engages and satisfies patients at critical points along the care episode.

The benefits include significant improvement in the clinical metrics tracked at both hospitals and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Here’s a look at how one mid-size healthcare system is using direct patient activation technology to improve orthopedic metrics.

Mandatory bundled payment programs for joint replacement offer “more robust, generalizable evidence” than voluntary programs. That’s the main finding of a new study of data from Medicare and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey.

And yet, with the never ending, constantly shifting priorities that hospital staff need to balance, the implication that mandatory bundled payments might be better is a tricky one. This study does not claim definitively that they are. Rather, the authors state, there’s a place for both types of programs in the push to get more hospitals using bundled payment plans. 

The study highlights that the shift to value-based care, particularly in orthopedics, is going strong. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to move this transition forward with bundled payments. Whether mandatory or voluntary, it’s wise to proactively get ahead of CMS’s efforts by implementing a patient activation solution that puts you in control.

A slew of digital health solutions have entered the industry over the last decade, most claiming to increase patient engagement in one way or another. But to what end are we creating patient-centered care? True engagement means activating patients with the tools to improve patient outcomes and impact hospital ROI.