A leading health system in the Northeast came to Vee Healthtek with a problem: its quality of patient care was decreasing due to low provider engagement during pre-visit reviews. Conditions were overlooked and important contraindications were missed, exposing the health system to the risk of making serious but preventable errors during patient care.
Although it tried addressing the issue internally by adding additional best practice alerts (BPAs) within its EHR system, provider engagement continued to decline. This created cost inefficiencies, in which the health system was paying for the development of more BPAs that did not solve the issue of low provider engagement. Without a fix, the hospital would continue to miss conditions when calculating risk adjustment factor (RAF) scores, leading to critical opportunities for care being overlooked.
Having worked with Vee Healthtek, a leading provider of healthcare professional services, on several highly successful medical coding projects in the past, the health system knew who to call when addressing the low provider engagement. Vee Healthtek had already proven its industry-leading expertise and reliability, making it the obvious choice for tackling this critical issue.
Vee Healthtek began by conducting a comprehensive review of the client’s provider engagement. Our clinical review team carefully evaluated all current BPAs in the EHR and met individually with the providers to learn why the alerts were ineffective. Through our research, we learned that the providers were experiencing “alert fatigue” from the constant influx of irrelevant BPAs. Because the providers knew the BPAs would likely not be helpful, they would instinctively close them without reading them.
To remedy this issue, our specialized team of clinical reviewers worked with the client to create new BPAs based on the providers’ feedback. With input from subject matter experts, we created extensive, evidence-based guidelines to help providers seamlessly align their workflows with the BPAs. Now, they could easily access the alerts during their pre-visit reviews. We also implemented regular training sessions on utilizing the BPAs that were customized based on the specific needs and preferences of the providers. These sessions had the dual impact of addressing providers’ questions and concerns while also providing valuable feedback that would help us continue to improve our solution and create even more effective BPAs.
Thanks to Vee Healthtek, the health system reported a dramatic boost in provider engagement, which led to more accurate RAF scores, fewer conditions being missed, and a higher reimbursement rate. Before working with Vee Healthtek, the provider acceptance rate of the health system’s BPAs was under 50%. Following the implementation of our curated BPAs and trainings, the acceptance rate surged substantially to 90%, reflecting the effectiveness of our solution.
The implementation of our curated BPAs resulted in a 23% increase in provider engagement, an outcome that far surpassed the client’s expectations. With decreased “alert fatigue,” providers engaged more frequently with BPAs, resulting in an increased quality of care for patients.
The client was especially pleased that our solution ensured the timely capture of patient diagnoses, reduced readmissions, and improved overall health outcomes.
