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Orchestrating Intelligent Healthcare - 2nd Decade of The SafeCare Group
By Yisrael M Safeek, MD, MBA
By Yisrael M Safeek, MD, MBA
USA
January 30, 2021
January 30, 2021
The SafeCare Group looks forward to growing its footprint as a leader in innovative and creative solutions for healthcare quality, safety, and cost with clients across the United States and strategic partnerships overseas.
The first decade of The SafeCare Group started during the Great Recession that was characterized by a general decline in national economies globally. Back then, there was the federal government bailout of companies that were “Too Big To Fail”. These mostly Capitalist Wall Street entities depended on the Socialist model to survive the recession thanks to taxpayers’ dollars. The SafeCare Group was just a startup then, and was ineligible for any help.
The second decade of The SafeCare Group begins during another worldwide catastrophe involving an unprecedented shutdown of world-wide commerce and loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives in the United States – the Coronavirus Pandemic. Several of The SafeCare Group’s competitors like Haven Healthcare (a healthcare venture launched with great fanfare by three of the world’s most prominent companies - Amazon.com Inc, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, and JPMorgan Chase JPM) folded. Others like The Leapfrog Group received monies under the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Staying true to form, The SafeCare Group was never the recipient of governmental assistance or welfare.
The second decade of The SafeCare Group begins during another worldwide catastrophe involving an unprecedented shutdown of world-wide commerce and loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives in the United States – the Coronavirus Pandemic. Several of The SafeCare Group’s competitors like Haven Healthcare (a healthcare venture launched with great fanfare by three of the world’s most prominent companies - Amazon.com Inc, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, and JPMorgan Chase JPM) folded. Others like The Leapfrog Group received monies under the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Staying true to form, The SafeCare Group was never the recipient of governmental assistance or welfare.
The first decade of The SafeCare Group started during the Great Recession that was characterized by a general decline in national economies globally.
The second decade of The SafeCare Group begins during another worldwide catastrophe involving an unprecedented shutdown of world-wide commerce and loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives in the United States – the Great Pandemic.
The second decade of The SafeCare Group begins during another worldwide catastrophe involving an unprecedented shutdown of world-wide commerce and loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives in the United States – the Great Pandemic.
Vision for our Second Decade
Our focus over the coming decade is Intelligent Healthcare – kick-starting America's healthcare revolution with artificial intelligence (AI) software to improve healthcare outcomes. By leveraging machine learning and deep-learning capabilities, SafeCare AI fosters a new generation of healthcare applications, which are able to sense, reason, act, and adapt to address a range of healthcare challenges in areas such as medical errors, readmissions, redundant care and utilization, infections, and cost.
Reduce Redundant Care
The SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to reduce redundant testing, and focusing on better lab ordering practices.
Laboratory tests are a critical component of the assessment of patients for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of most diseases. Unfortunately, the indiscriminate use and overuse of laboratory tests contribute a significant and unnecessary burden on the health care system.
Unnecessary duplicate laboratory testing is common and costly. As healthcare in the US changes from a fee-for-service model increasingly toward value-based payments, strategies to avoid unnecessary laboratory tests will become progressively more important.
Gone are the days of the “shot-gun” approach where a panel of tests is ordered and all tests in the panel are performed, regardless of the results.
There is a lot of opportunity to reduce duplicate tests, reduce errors, and provide better care to patients. A recent study found that there is somewhere near a 30% overutilization rate for tests ordered. The Institute of Medicine estimates that over $200 billion a year are spent on tests and procedures that are unnecessary.
Redundant testing contributes to reductions in healthcare system efficiency. Duplicate laboratory tests that are unwarranted increase unnecessary phlebotomy, which contributes to iatrogenic anemia, decreased patient satisfaction, and increased health care costs.
Unnecessary duplicate laboratory testing is common and costly. As healthcare in the US changes from a fee-for-service model increasingly toward value-based payments, strategies to avoid unnecessary laboratory tests will become progressively more important.
Gone are the days of the “shot-gun” approach where a panel of tests is ordered and all tests in the panel are performed, regardless of the results.
There is a lot of opportunity to reduce duplicate tests, reduce errors, and provide better care to patients. A recent study found that there is somewhere near a 30% overutilization rate for tests ordered. The Institute of Medicine estimates that over $200 billion a year are spent on tests and procedures that are unnecessary.
Redundant testing contributes to reductions in healthcare system efficiency. Duplicate laboratory tests that are unwarranted increase unnecessary phlebotomy, which contributes to iatrogenic anemia, decreased patient satisfaction, and increased health care costs.
Cut Avoidable Readmissions
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) estimates that readmissions incur an annual cost of $17 billion.
Hospital readmissions are disruptive to patients and costly to healthcare systems. Unnecessary return to hospitals shortly after discharge has been increasingly perceived as a marker of poor quality of care that patients receive during hospital admission.
Hospital readmissions are frequent, harmful and costly - 18% of Medicare patients, totaling over 2.3 million patients annually, are rehospitalized within 30 days after discharge, incurring an annual cost of $17 billion, which constitutes nearly 20 % of Medicare’s total payment.
It is reported by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) that about 75 % of such readmissions can and should be avoided.
SafeCare AI software offering predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to cut avoidable readmissions and focusing on better coordination of care and communications between providers, and patients and their caregivers.
Hospital readmissions are frequent, harmful and costly - 18% of Medicare patients, totaling over 2.3 million patients annually, are rehospitalized within 30 days after discharge, incurring an annual cost of $17 billion, which constitutes nearly 20 % of Medicare’s total payment.
It is reported by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) that about 75 % of such readmissions can and should be avoided.
SafeCare AI software offering predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to cut avoidable readmissions and focusing on better coordination of care and communications between providers, and patients and their caregivers.
Reduce Inpatient Mortality
Estimates of preventable hospital deaths from medical errors range from 250,000 to 440,000 annually.
The hospital inpatient mortality rate (the proportion of patients who die during or shortly after admission to hospital) would be expected to reflect the safety, effectiveness and timeliness of care.
A hospital's mortality rates are compared with U.S. National rates to determine whether patients admitted to the hospital have mortality rates that are lower (better) than the U.S. National rate, about the same as the U.S. National rate, or higher (worse) than the U.S. National rate, given how sick they were when they were admitted to the hospital.
It has been estimated that there are between 715,000 and 776,000 hospital deaths each year in the United States. Estimates of preventable hospital deaths from medical errors range from about 250,000 annually to as high as 440,000.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care. SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to reduce inpatient deaths by identifying risk, reactions, and events.
A hospital's mortality rates are compared with U.S. National rates to determine whether patients admitted to the hospital have mortality rates that are lower (better) than the U.S. National rate, about the same as the U.S. National rate, or higher (worse) than the U.S. National rate, given how sick they were when they were admitted to the hospital.
It has been estimated that there are between 715,000 and 776,000 hospital deaths each year in the United States. Estimates of preventable hospital deaths from medical errors range from about 250,000 annually to as high as 440,000.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care. SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to reduce inpatient deaths by identifying risk, reactions, and events.
Prevent Hospital Acquired Infections
The CDC approximates 1 of every 25 hospitalized patients in the US has an HAI, meaning 650,000 patients contract one of these infections annually.
High-quality healthcare has been defined as care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable. Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are among the most common complications of hospital care.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at any given time, approximately 1 of every 25 hospitalized patients in the United States has an HAI, meaning that nearly 650,000 patients contract one of these infections annually.
The overall direct cost of HAIs to hospitals ranges from US $28 billion to 45 billion annually. These infections can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, with tens of thousands of lives lost each year.
HAIs are estimated to cost billions of dollars annually. Such infections were long accepted by hospitals as an inevitable hazard of hospitalization. However, it is now understood that relatively straightforward approaches can prevent many common HAIs.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to prevent hospital acquired infections by identifying risk for infections and precluding the need for instituting aggressive care later through implementation of prevention strategies to high-risk patients as part of a HAI surveillance system.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at any given time, approximately 1 of every 25 hospitalized patients in the United States has an HAI, meaning that nearly 650,000 patients contract one of these infections annually.
The overall direct cost of HAIs to hospitals ranges from US $28 billion to 45 billion annually. These infections can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, with tens of thousands of lives lost each year.
HAIs are estimated to cost billions of dollars annually. Such infections were long accepted by hospitals as an inevitable hazard of hospitalization. However, it is now understood that relatively straightforward approaches can prevent many common HAIs.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to prevent hospital acquired infections by identifying risk for infections and precluding the need for instituting aggressive care later through implementation of prevention strategies to high-risk patients as part of a HAI surveillance system.
Predict Sepsis Progression
It costs about $18,000 to treat non-severe sepsis compared to $68,000 for sepsis progression to severe sepsis or septic shock.
Patients who survive sepsis often suffer long-term physical, psychological, and cognitive disabilities. Because sepsis is a condition that often involves multiple organ systems, the care of patients with sepsis is complex and frequently requires the coordination of multiple disciplines throughout the hospital.
Thus, one of the potential drivers of the costs of care may be the quality of care coordination and the overall efficiency of the hospital environment.
According to the CDC, sepsis is a clinical syndrome defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.
The burden of sepsis is high, with over 1.7 million adult sepsis cases annually in the U.S. which contribute to 270,000 deaths. The annual costs attributable to sepsis care have been estimated at $17 billion.
It costs less for a hospital to treat sepsis upon admission, at about $18,000 per non-severe case compared to $68,000 for sepsis progression.
Early identification of patients with non-severe sepsis at highest risk for progression to severe sepsis or septic shock is a critical first step in preventing sepsis progression.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to predict sepsis progression, precluding the need for instituting aggressive care later through an early warning system to identify deteriorating patients and aid CMS SEP-1 compliance efforts.
Thus, one of the potential drivers of the costs of care may be the quality of care coordination and the overall efficiency of the hospital environment.
According to the CDC, sepsis is a clinical syndrome defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.
The burden of sepsis is high, with over 1.7 million adult sepsis cases annually in the U.S. which contribute to 270,000 deaths. The annual costs attributable to sepsis care have been estimated at $17 billion.
It costs less for a hospital to treat sepsis upon admission, at about $18,000 per non-severe case compared to $68,000 for sepsis progression.
Early identification of patients with non-severe sepsis at highest risk for progression to severe sepsis or septic shock is a critical first step in preventing sepsis progression.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to predict sepsis progression, precluding the need for instituting aggressive care later through an early warning system to identify deteriorating patients and aid CMS SEP-1 compliance efforts.
Improve Medication Safety
Medication-related problems account for 106,000 deaths annually with an estimated extra cost of $2 billion annually.
High-quality healthcare has been defined as care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable.
Medication-related problems are ranked according to their severity as severe, which are life threatening, the ones that cause or prolong hospital stay, or those that bring about permanent or significant sequelae; and non-severe.
Medication-related reactions account for up to 106,000 deaths in the United States annually. In a review from 2007, adverse drug reactions were found to occur in 6.1% of all hospitalizations. Of these, 46% were preventable.
Medication-related reactions rank fifth among all causes of death and, moreover, they represent from 5 to 10% of hospital costs. The national cost of preventable in-hospital events alone has been estimated to be more than $US 2 billion annually.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to improve medication safety by identifying at risk for medication-related problems allowing prioritizing therapeutic decisions and implementing prevention strategies to high-risk patients.
Medication-related problems are ranked according to their severity as severe, which are life threatening, the ones that cause or prolong hospital stay, or those that bring about permanent or significant sequelae; and non-severe.
Medication-related reactions account for up to 106,000 deaths in the United States annually. In a review from 2007, adverse drug reactions were found to occur in 6.1% of all hospitalizations. Of these, 46% were preventable.
Medication-related reactions rank fifth among all causes of death and, moreover, they represent from 5 to 10% of hospital costs. The national cost of preventable in-hospital events alone has been estimated to be more than $US 2 billion annually.
Flaws contributing to preventable mortality include delays in responding to deteriorating patients, suboptimal critical care, hospital-acquired infections, postoperative complications, medication reactions, and community issues such as the availability of hospice care.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to improve medication safety by identifying at risk for medication-related problems allowing prioritizing therapeutic decisions and implementing prevention strategies to high-risk patients.
Target High Hospital Charges
Total healthcare spending was $3.5 trillion in 2017 and about 32% of that amount ($1.1 trillion) was spent on hospital services.
The Department of Health and Human Services just ordered all hospitals to post their price lists with the two-pronged goal of giving transparency to consumers and forcing hospitals to keep their prices competitive.
Total health care spending in America was approximately $3.5 trillion in 2017 and about 32 percent of that amount - or $1.1-trillion - was spent on hospital services. Hospital costs averaged $3,949 per day and each hospital stay cost an average of $15,734.
To make health care costs more transparent, the federal government is requiring hospitals nationwide to post their prices online. There is no standard system that determines what a hospital charges for a particular service or procedure.
Many factors figure into hospital pricing, including the utilization of high-dollar tests, lab tests, X-rays, surgical procedures, operating room and post-surgical costs, medications, and specialists’ fees.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to reduce hospital charges by addressing hospital utilization.
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, The SafeCare Group looks forward to many more anniversary celebrations in the future as its footprint continues to grow as a leader in innovative and creative solutions for healthcare quality, safety, and efficiency with clients across the United States and strategic partnerships overseas.
Total health care spending in America was approximately $3.5 trillion in 2017 and about 32 percent of that amount - or $1.1-trillion - was spent on hospital services. Hospital costs averaged $3,949 per day and each hospital stay cost an average of $15,734.
To make health care costs more transparent, the federal government is requiring hospitals nationwide to post their prices online. There is no standard system that determines what a hospital charges for a particular service or procedure.
Many factors figure into hospital pricing, including the utilization of high-dollar tests, lab tests, X-rays, surgical procedures, operating room and post-surgical costs, medications, and specialists’ fees.
SafeCare AI software offers predictive insights to aid proactive real-time decision support and target opportunities to reduce hospital charges by addressing hospital utilization.
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, The SafeCare Group looks forward to many more anniversary celebrations in the future as its footprint continues to grow as a leader in innovative and creative solutions for healthcare quality, safety, and efficiency with clients across the United States and strategic partnerships overseas.
