Maximizing Efficiency: The Role of Connected Care in Reducing Healthcare Costs and Improving Outcomes

As hospitals and health systems face mounting financial pressures, connected care offers a viable path to reducing costs while maintaining quality. By enabling innovations like continuous patient monitoring and quick detection of health changes, connected care ensures timely and personalized treatments that not only improve patient outcomes but also reduce expensive interventions. Connected care solutions also streamline operations, helping organizations expand capacity without costly brick-and-mortar investments or additional staff. This allows health systems to focus their limited resources on delivering high-quality care to their communities while managing financial risks.

A virtual path to addressing financial pressures

A thoughtful approach to virtual care allows hospitals to design, test and scale strategies without significant financial outlay. By developing a roadmap that maximizes current investments, leaders can increase capacity and geographic reach without adding infrastructure. Virtual solutions also enable predictive modeling, helping anticipate patient demand, which in turn allows organizations to deploy resources efficiently—critical in a time of financial constraint.

Four steps to mapping your path to value:

1. Measure quality across the entire consumer journey, translating data into actionable insights that can guide planning
2. Explore all available ways to leverage existing technology investments
3. Begin with services that build comfort and confidence, such as virtual mental health
4. Identify partners that can help meet the widest array of needs specific to your population

Questions to ask:

1. What percent of your revenues are under a risk-based arrangement today, and where do you expect that will be in two years?
2. How might a virtually integrated hospital-at-home program reduce costs and improve satisfaction for your chronic populations?
3. How could you leverage your existing virtual care investments to deliver greater value?
4. What are the risks if you fail in supporting your value-based care arrangements?
5. How might your virtual care data be leveraged when negotiating value-based contracts?