title: Physician Collaboration - Now needed more than ever.
abstract: Driven by the changing reimbursement climate from volume to value-based, hospital systems must initiate technology and training to insure that communications between all HCPs involved with a given patient are coordinated and all test results and care plans are immediately available at every point of care in the system. Since the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), there has been intense pressure on hospitals and health systems to reduce costs. Many hospitals are responding by merging and buying doctors' practices, while some are beginning to offer their own health plans for the first time and setting up accountable care organizations that would provide coordinated high quality health care for large groups of patients. With new hospital mergers being announced weekly and more practices being added to hospital systems daily, the need to collaborate through virtual health initiatives is gaining strength. The addition of inexpensive secure telemedicine to the availability of an intelligent patient record form based on best practice guidelines will enable greater collaboration across the hospital system. This type of technology will increase revenues, cut costs, improve outcomes and increase patient and provider satisfaction.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schurr
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003363:Cost Control; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D008490:Medical Informatics; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D010346:Patient Care Management; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D017216:Telemedicine; D062505:Value-Based Purchasing