WAYNE, PA – MEDecision is touting a collaborative care management model that would provide a summary of all clinically relevant data to physicians at the point of care.

Two implementations in Texas and Delaware are demonstrating increased quality of care, return on investment and provider satisfaction.

All stakeholder – patients, payers and providers – hold only a portion of clinical data. By combining personal health data and health risk assessments held by the patient, provider encounters and claims and care management data collected by payers, providers can have a complete picture of their patients, said Henry DePhillips, MD, CMO and executive vice president at MEDecision.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware has been providing patient data to emergency department physicians at Christiana Care Health Systems in Delaware since March 2006.

Christiana Care Health Systems’ Level I trauma center encounters approximately 100,000 lives a year. Lack of any information on incoming patients was a typical problem. With an integrated information workflow system in place, nurses and physicians have a complete picture of Blues plan patients who they encounter.

Emergency care physicians have been able to eliminate duplicative tests, and complete medication lists have enabled physicians to make better-informed decisions about which medications to prescribe.

“It’s been really phenomenal,” said Ed Ewen, MD, director of clinical informatics at Christiana Care Health System, of the integrated system and the value seen by emergency nurses and physicians. “We will see a significant return on investment in a few years.”

Paul Handel, MD, chief medical officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas said that post-Rita and Charlotte hurricanes the health plan has realized “tremendous benefits already” from creating an electronic health record comprised of a personal health record, a electronic medical record and a payer-based health record.

A number of Blues plans, including those serving Illinois, New Mexico and Oklahoma, are accelerating their patient clinical summery initiatives after the Katrina and Rita hurricanes. The goal is to make these summaries available to all providers in all types of settings.