In healthcare, the contributions of women are not only significant but also transformative. Medicai recognizes the invaluable role that women play in shaping and enriching communities. In this blog post, Medicai is spotlighting the inspiring thoughts of women leaders who are making a tangible difference in their profession. Join us as we celebrate and empower these remarkable individuals driving positive change in healthcare and beyond.
Alexandra Choquette, Chief Operating Officer
With a career solely focused on healthcare, Alexandra is committed to changing the state of the industry. She has deep expertise in value-based care enablement and highly values getting her hands dirty to help healthcare organizations get the most out of the technology and data solutions they have in place. In addition to implementation and operational knowledge, she has a deep understanding of the analytic needs surrounding healthcare organizations, especially within the specialty of primary care. She believes that data can only be valuable when it drives action and has experience in how to enable that within an organization.
Alex is a doer and has a get-it-done attitude about anything that comes across her plate.
What is your thesis for value-based care? What’s your insight? How do you see it evolving in the next few years?
Value-based care has already proven it can generate cost savings and provide better care. The faster we can move from a fee-for-service model to a VBC payment model, the better. Giving primary care (internal medicine, Pediatrics, adult medicine, behavioral health) a model where they are in the driver's seat for controlling the total cost of care is the best model to allow primary care to do more. The focus shifts from caring for patients who are showing up sick to a broader, holistic approach of caring for the whole patient. Some examples of care delivery that now exist because of VBC are Care Coordination, Transitional Care Management, supporting social determinants of health, and mental health-focused care. These types of care models being supported financially allow the physician to focus on the total cost of care of the patient, not just the FFS monies that come from doing the service.
In your opinion, what should be the key considerations when implementing a new technology as a healthcare provider?
First, it is important to define what successful technology implementation means.
To me, a technology is successfully implemented when:
- the provider, care team, MA, or patient is bought into the technology.
- The target user is utilizing it consistently (high adoption rates).
- The technology shows performance improvement on the identified key performance indicators for the technology which in value-based care are typically tied to the contractual requirements for the patient population, provider satisfaction, or patient satisfaction.
As for the key considerations, data is at the top of the list. Almost every technology used in the healthcare space for VBC performance has a huge reliance on data. For the technology to be successful, the data has to be reliable, accurate, and meaningful/actionable. Additionally, to make the implementation as seamless as possible, it is critical to involve all stakeholders in the implementation. Gathering their feedback, getting their buy-in, and getting them to see the value is critical to success. Forcing adoption is not the most efficient path to success.
If possible, I highly recommend evaluating if incentivizing people to use the technology is possible. Usually, technologies are implemented to align to a financial benefit, and trickling that benefit down can be a motivator to performance. I will add that it doesn’t always have to be a financial incentive. Getting feedback (as stated above) on the incentive that means most to the adopters is a fast pass to success.
The team that is running the implementation can make or break the success of the rollout. Ensure you have the right people setting the technology up and training it to maximize your outcomes.
Lastly, having a control process is critical and typically the most commonly skipped step. Reporting and monitoring the success of the technology to enable adjustments and improvements on an ongoing basis will continue to engage the implementation team and keep everyone invested in the success of the implementation.
What do you think the role of data access and exchange is in modern healthcare?
Data access and data interoperability have grown and expanded rapidly over the past 3-5 years. We have a national HIE, which gets better and better, and TEFCA should pave the way for a great system for Data Exchange. Hospitals are now required to share data, and this has made getting Hospital ADT feeds across the country a lot easier. Technologies like FHIR will become commonplace and make data exchange a standard process. I also see that most major insurance companies are now able to share claims data with their VBC providers which is empowering to those clinical partnerships.
