Staying Ahead of the Annual Trends

By Pat Stricker, RN, MEd
Senior Vice President, Clinical Services
TCS Healthcare Technologies

At this time of year, we see numerous articles and blogs discussing health care trends and predictions for the coming year. The year 2012 is no exception. These trends include a range of topics, but a big issue on most case managers’ minds is how "medical management" and "technology" will work together to improve care management processes. Leveraging technology to support and enhance medical management solutions is essential to optimize clinical and financial outcomes for patients, providers, and payers.

In reality, looking ahead one year at a time often is not enough to make accurate predictions. In fact, software developers need to look even further into the future to identify emerging trends and needs, in order to anticipate and design future innovations. But that isn’t always easy in this industry, because things change so quickly. "Key" predictions for this year may not turn out to be correct or they may be irrelevant in a year or two. There is no "crystal ball" that we can simply rely on with 100 percent certainty.

However, here are a few key observations, okay "predictions" if you will, that are impacting the U.S. health care system in general and case management in particular:
These are just some of the trends that software developers, case managers, and others should keep in mind when developing strategies for future enhancements and implementing care management programs. Therefore, it is important that you provide your thoughts and perspectives to your technology vendors regarding what you feel is needed. This will help us both move forward together to stay ahead of the trends and create innovative IT and medical management enhancements.

Health care is an ever-changing industry, therefore IT applications and clinical processes need to keep pace. By looking forward, we can do a better job with our tasks today and anticipate what is coming tomorrow.