If disjointed care is robbing your patients of potential value in their surgical journey, then you need a Perioperative Surgical Home.
In the US, healthcare costs continue to climb. We spent an average of $12,500 per person in 2020, while other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries spent about one-third as much and achieved better outcomes. The Perioperative Surgical Home offers a model of care designed to emphasize value over volume by creating a central hub for every aspect of the surgical journey. Learn how you can implement a PSH to lower costs and improve outcomes for your patients, surgical team, and healthcare payers.
Key Takeaways
- A Perioperative Surgical Home is a patient-centric, collaborative model that aims to improve outcomes and lower costs.
- There are significant benefits for patients, the surgical team, and healthcare payers when the PSH is implemented.
- A PSH supports the increasing healthcare movement towards value-based reimbursement.
- When implementing a PSH, getting team buy-in is one of the most crucial components for success.
What is a Perioperative Surgical Home?
A Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH, sometimes referred to as POSH) is a model of patient care designed to increase the value delivered by your surgical procedures. The PSH begins when the decision to operate is made and carries all the way through to patient discharge and return to function.
A Perioperative Surgical Home can be a physical or virtual location. This model implements care that is:
- Patient-centric
- Physician led
- Interdisciplinary
- Team-based
- Coordinated
- Continuous
- Collaborative
The perioperative surgical home stands in contrast to the historically siloed approach to surgery. It aims to unite disparate elements of a healthcare journey to provide patients with a streamlined experience. By coordinating every element of the surgical journey through one central hub, the PSH model makes care consistent, improves outcomes, and lowers costs.
What are the Benefits of a Perioperative Surgical Home?
The Perioperative Surgical Home model has proven benefits for all stakeholders. Patients, your surgical team, and healthcare payers alike see improved outcomes and lower costs as a result of paying for value rather than volume.
Benefits for Patients
The Perioperative Surgical Home is designed to improve the experience of your patients by uniting all aspects of their surgical journey. As a result, they experience more seamless healthcare, which includes:
- Continuity of care
- Higher quality of care
- Shorter hospital stays
- Improved safety
- Improved effectiveness
- More cohesive education
- Equity in service availability and standards
Benefits for Surgical Teams
Your surgical team can see significant benefits from a PSH because collaboration and communication are at the model’s core. The streamlined patient journey creates opportunities to improve the workflow and job satisfaction of every member of the clinical team, resulting in:
- Improved efficiency
- Less unjustified variation
- Fewer redundant tests and labs
- Decreased waste of resources
- Higher productivity
- Individualized surgical plans
- Improved reputation
Benefits for Payers
Healthcare payers including health plan providers, Medicare, and Medicaid will also see substantial benefits from the implementation of a PSH, including:
- Higher cost-effectiveness
- Improved reliability
- Establishment of a reputation based on positive outcomes
How Does a PSH Facilitate Value-Based Care?
The US healthcare industry is already moving towards a value-based care reimbursement system. The Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network (HCPLAN) is a group of both public and private healthcare organizations that aim to tie 50% of payments to the quality and value of care by 2025. This incentivizes providers to offer the most effective treatments over the most lucrative ones, leading to higher quality, individualized, and more efficient care.
A Perioperative Surgical Home is a pathway to value-based care because its core characteristics support the movement. A PSH:
- Is centered around delivering more value to your patients, which is rewarded in value-based reimbursement.
- Collects data used to report, document, and communicate throughout the surgical journey, which you can then use to drive evidence-based practices and protocols.
- Facilitates collaborative care, which has been shown to improve outcomes.
- Has been proven to boost patient satisfaction metrics, which are a key factor in all value-based payment programs.
How to Implement a Perioperative Surgical Home
The advantages of a Perioperative Surgical Home are clear. Successful implementation of a PSH program is contingent upon four key aspects:
1. Get Team Buy-In
Getting buy-in from your entire team is crucial. The Perioperative Surgical Home model hinges on collaborative care, so depends on the commitment of every member of the team. Changing your organizational culture from siloed to integrated can have the greatest impact on your outcomes. Every administrator, surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse should be ready to communicate thoroughly and work together to coordinate every transition of care.
2. Establish Key Elements
Although each Perioperative Surgical Home will look slightly different, certain key elements have been demonstrably successful. These include:
- A nurse navigator
- Enhance recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols
- Clear communication pathways
3. Plan a Gradual Rollout
Experts suggest starting the rollout of your PSH small and expanding gradually. This can be as little as putting a single patient through the PSH, then evaluating and adjusting as needed before bringing more patients through. This enables you to make any necessary changes in the earlier stages.
4. Leverage Data
Throughout the implementation and execution of your PSH, you should measure and analyze key metrics to guide your surgical team. These outcomes should include:
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- Patient, such as satisfaction and loyalty
- Internal efficiency, such as cancellations and delays
- Clinical and safety, such as complications and readmissions
- Economic, such as use of resources and total healthcare costs
A dashboard is an effective way to share these insights with the entire care team to demonstrate the effectiveness of your PSH.
Create Your Perioperative Surgical Home with Wellbe
A successful Perioperative Surgical Home depends on clear communication and a thoroughly connected team. Wellbe specializes in personalized patient enablement solutions that support your PSH by automating hundreds of non-medical administrative tasks, making the sharing of information effortless for the entire clinical team.
Talk to a Solutions Specialist today to find out how Wellbe can support your PSH.
The epitome of an entrepreneur, Mark has seen the peaks and valleys of starting, operating, and assuming the risks of a new venture. He’s come up against payroll, had a few bad hires, and even swept the floors early on. Collectively, Mark’s companies have done over $360 million in sales and raised more than $38 million in venture capital, and he has successfully bought and/or sold eight companies.
James believes technology, when creatively applied, can improve our life experiences. Intrigued by the amazing potential for internet and mobile technology to engage us all, James created a business model to reshape personal health management.
Mike Splinter, an electrical engineer and innovator, has played a major role in driving advances in the high tech industry, with more than four decades of executive leadership experience including 12 years with Applied Materials, Inc. where he was served as chairman and CEO, and over 20 years with Intel, where he was executive vice president of sales and marketing, and executive vice president of the Technology and Manufacturing Group.
Mr. Baldwin was most recently Chairman and CEO of Baxa Corporation, a leader in devices, systems, and software for the handling, packaging, and tracking of fluid medications in a critical care setting. Under his leadership from 1997 until its sale to Baxter Corporation in 2011, the company sales grew from $25 million to over $170 million. As CEO, he led the eight-member board of directors and led a minority recap resulting in Goldman Sach’s private equity group owning 27% of the company. He was also an early investor and lead director in Pharmacy OneSource, an innovative software-as-a-service business that had a successful exit in 2010.