EMHS

EMHS: The Future of Care

Working Together to Improve the Health of Our Communities
 
EMHS: Leading the Way - Transforming Care
It’s no secret that our current healthcare system is too costly. Status quo is not an option: society simply no longer afford healthcare services the way they have been designed. In order to help make affordable, accessible, quality care available to the people of central, eastern, and northern Maine, change must take place. In fact, change is taking place! EMHS is leading the redesign of care across rural Maine toward a more sustainable model of care delivery that will both improve outcomes – and reduce cost.
 
The Idea: Keep people well
By monitoring chronic illness, seamlessly coordinating care among providers, encouraging patient involvement and collaboration, and increasing access to information, technology, and expertise, we will reduce hospital visits, reduce cost, and get better results.
 
The Opportunity

• Projected 20% annual cost savings due to reduced emergency department visits, hospital admissions and readmissions, and fewer days spent in the hospital for those who are admitted.

• Improved Patient Experience: (access, communication, provider relationship, care coordination)

• Improved Provider Experience (ability to see real results, collaborate across all types of care, work with the whole patient)

 
EMHS: Embracing the Change
 
EMHS’ is using  the power of coordinated care to get results. We are making big changes, too!
 

• EMHS’ key service lines are being reinvented to operate seamlessly across multiple sites of care in our system.
• Leadership structure is being reinvented to push the hard work and system level decision-making responsibilities to broader groups of senior managers from across the system – to eliminate the ‘silo effect.’
• Our governance structure is being reinvented to allow our boards to make decisions in a more integrated fashion.
• But one that has not changed is our core brand promise: to advocate and ensure that all Maine people have access to the quality care they need.

Overview
The Challenge: Lack of Coordination
Right now, healthcare providers often have minimal communication with their peers and lack opportunities to coordinate patient care. As a result, patient care between multiple providers is often disjointed. This significantly lessens care quality and compromises patient safety. Chronically ill patients often fail to adequately manage their disease between visits to the doctor’s office. All too often they arrive in emergency departments in crisis. In addition, care coordination is not currently reimbursed by payers. The traditional payment system – known as ‘fee for service’ – pays providers for a single visit, or an emergency department visit, but is not designed to encourage or reward effective coordination of a patient’s short and long term well-being.

The Solution: Moving Away from “Volume”  
EMHS and its network of healthcare providers will shift payment from the volume, or number of visits, tests, and procedures we do, to the value we deliver. More services and higher spending don’t always result in better outcomes – in fact, often exactly the opposite results. EMHS is restructuring care delivery shifts from how much a healthcare provider does to how well the patient does.  Better care. Better results for patients. Reducing the overall cost of care.
What Are our Goals? Providing the right care at the right time in the right place.
Focus on the patient – Reduce the cost of care

• Improve the experience of patients EMHS, their ability to take control of their own health, and improve their quality of life.

• Reduce variation in the delivery of evidence-based medicine and improve care quality for our community.
• Reduce costs associated with hospital admissions, readmissions, and emergency department visits by increasing quality and safety.
• Improve population health through proper immunization and sharing of immunization data among providers.
• Bring community leaders and organizations together to use health information effectively, improve efficiency, and 
improve care and quality
• Support all our providers with access to technology, expertise and information that will enable them to provide better care overall

 
Improve communication and the flow of healthcare data

The EMHS collaborative model is innovative and patient inclusive, making the patient part of the team and encouraging patients and their families to be involved in their care.
We will also have increased health information exchange among allof our providers – whether they are inpatient or outpatient providers. We will do this through four innovative and technological solutions: electronic health records, a health information exchange (such as HealthInfoNet), computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and patient care coordination. These may all sound like industry buzz words, but just know there is a lot of great work going on to improve care and keep people well and active.

‘The Triple Aim’
EMHS will assist and support our partner providers as they coordinate care across all healthcare disciplines. We pledge that our  new approach to primary care will result in accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective care that will:

• Improve the health of our community (?)
• Enhance the patient experience of care (quality, access, reliability);
• Reduce and control the cost of care. 


Patients, Providers and Communities All Benefit

• Whether you are in Presque Isle or Waterville, Greenville or Blue Hill; opening the door to an EMHS provider means you have access to exceptional care – always
• The care is evidence-based, local,collaborative, and can be receieved at home, or whereever the patient is
• Individualized care coordinators assist and advise people, helping them monitorglucose levels, blood pressure, and weight through remote telemedicine, and helping them understand why it’s important and necessary
• Complex mental health medications are also managed from the home, including mental health consultations, and telepsychiatry
• Chronic health needs are monitored and the need for repeat visits and sudden emergency room trips is reduced
• Communities experience reduced healthcare costs and improved health overall

Together We’re Stronger
Building effective partnerships and collaborations is in the best interest of EMHS, our providers, and the people of Maine. The more who join, the better the results will be.
 
 
Change is here. We need to embrace it together! The health of the community is best served through a partnership between providers, payers, and patients.  Only a community working together can make this work. You can be part of this community if you embrace change for the better. The more care providers who join with EMHS, the better the care will be for the people of central, eastern and northern Maine. EMHS will assist our providers with the tools, expertise, and support you need. We need and value your involvement!
 
Care you can trust from people you know.
 
As EMHS, we bring tremendous value to patients, providers, and communities. We share our resources, knowledge and skill to improve individual and population health. Working in partnership with our patients, our communities and our providers we’re focused on creating a more sustainable health care model to help our patients live well far into the future. We’re the people you know and trust at your local doctor’s office, at your neighborhood health center, and at your community hospital. We’re here for you now and into the future, helping to make sure that the right care is is delivered at the right time and in the right place. 

In Real Life:
Improved care coordination leads to improved quality of life:
Joan Oullette is 65 years old and has led a fairly healthy life, although she struggles with her diet and physical activity. Four years ago, Joan was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and is now working with her provider to control her symptoms.

Joan has seen a number of providers throughout the Bangor area – she sees a provider at Penobscot Community Health Care and had been admitted to both St. Joseph Hospital and Eastern Maine Medical Center. She also went to an urgent care center once when she cut her hand while cooking.
The records of Joan’s visits could not be accessed by providers that were with different systems. Now, under the new EMHS system, each provider has access to one record maintained by HealthInfoNet, showing all of Joan’s visits to different providers, the medications she is taking, any allergies she may have, and her problem list.

Joan also has a care coordinator, Lori, who works with Joan’s primary care provider and calls her regularly. Lori helps Joan track her blood sugar, talks to her about making good food choices and gently reminds her to make time for regular daily walks with her dog. Lori helps make sure Joan’s appointments are scheduled and that she doesn’t miss any important tests.

Joan’s care is coordinated through her primary care physician and any additional testing or procedures are tracked and followed on the same healthcare record - regardless of where those tests or procedures are done. Through proactive management of Joan’s diabetes and with a complete picture of her healthcare records at their fingertips, Joan’s providers are better able to work with her to improve her health, reducing the need for emergency care and future admissions to the hospital
For Joan, however, success is not about records following her, or about the coordination of care or about reducing costs. Those are all important and meaningful measure of success – but for Joan the real success is that she is better able to live each and every day.