Smooth Scaling: How to Do More with Chronic Disease Management
By Thomas Ferry
Engooden Health President and CEO
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic disease. Not only are these the leading causes of disability and death in the country, but chronic conditions are also the foremost contributor to escalating healthcare costs.
The key to reducing this impact is identifying rising-risk and chronically ill patients, then intervening at the right time to change their health trajectories for the better. To do that means modifying patient behaviors, which requires greater engagement by healthcare professionals. More than anything, providers want better outcomes, but it takes a lot to provide chronic care patients with the support they need in between doctor visits. This is where we believe the most impact can be made. Personalized intervention by care navigators is vital, but not only are there limited numbers of these professionals available to provide these services at the scale needed, the cost to hire and train them is often too high a risk for even the largest practices. Technology can help if it takes the right approach, but there’s still no substitute for human interaction and engagement.
To accomplish this kind of interaction at scale requires a unique approach; a blend of a technology-driven, personalized intervention carried out by experienced and empathetic care navigators. And that’s where Engooden excels.
Failing to scale
Some of our most engaged customers are organizations that tried to scale their chronic disease management services on their own. Often these implementations come up short of expectations because it is impossible to reach the volume of patients needed to make an impact by relying on staff that has other operational roles. Not to mention it requires the same staff to identify and enroll patients, manage new workstreams, and deliver consistent and empathy-driven interaction with patients. Further, there’s the issue of finding care navigator talent, carrying out human resource processes, onboarding, training, and other related costs and efforts. Many of our clients have tried to scale their chronic disease management services using their registered nurses, which is an expensive undertaking.
Many of these organizations found this all consumes a great deal of time and money – and this doesn’t even include the cost of any supporting technology. In fact, practices quickly realized they can’t scale chronic disease management in a meaningful way that’ll provide a return on investment. Of course, failure to scale means patients don’t have the adequate support to change their health trajectories, so they will continue to remain status quo, or even worse, many will transition to a high-risk status. And at the end of the day, no program is worth it if there’s no improvement in patient outcomes.
Scale away
Engooden is the only company to offer scalable chronic disease management services and technology to physicians, health systems, ACOs, and payers for identifying rising-risk and chronically ill patients, and – more importantly – transforming the way these patients receive care. Whether it’s by helping patients manage diabetes or high blood pressure, navigating medication and prescriptions, or providing emotional support through an expected touchpoint, we reach thousands of patients each month between office visits, dramatically improving results like decreasing HbA1c levels and lowering blood pressure while decreasing costs.
Our technology continuously analyzes electronic health records (EHR) for patients who qualify for chronic disease management services, successfully identifying over 20% more chronic conditions than any other solution. We also pinpoint 25% more care gaps than an EHR alone. Our patent-pending technology automatically surfaces actionable insights to empower care navigators. With that information at their fingertips, care navigators are able to focus on the most clinically important and urgent patient updates and intervene with the right patients at the right time.
Simply put, we deliver a comprehensive service model to maximize program efficiency and data accuracy at scale. With over 88% patient retention, our workflows are proven. There’s compliance and audit tracking to sync with Medicare, automated billing, and seamless integration with leading physician EHRs to ensure all clinically relevant information is easily shared back to the provider.
Our team drives our passion to provide uniquely powerful and cost-effective technology and services. And it’s all with a goal that echoes our customers’ greatest goal, too - improving patient satisfaction and outcomes for as many as possible. Engooden’s tech-enabled services allow for smooth scaling without added training, hiring, upfront costs or overhead.
In short, with Engooden, you’re clear to scale away.
Looking to scale your chronic disease management? Click here to learn more about Engooden and how we can support your practice!