Blog: Chris Boue

SoapBlog 2 - Providing healthcare in the new millennium

Our country is rapidly becoming the chronic disease capital of the world.

Of the top ten chronic diseases Americans face, diabetes rates are not only a national crisis (23 million), but experts now expect that fully one third of our population has pre-indications of diabetes. Examples include high obesity rates in adults and children.

We have taken our modern-day comforts and turned them into health risks. We drive our cars to work and park in parking garages. As knowledge workers we sit at computers all day, and even those of us with healthy behaviors in the past put our hearts at risk in the present.

At the very time Americans increasingly will be living otherwise healthy lives while having a chronic disease (62 percent of those over 60 ), we are not managing these diseases very well.  Ours is not a health care system as much as it is an urgent  health care system.

To make a significant impact in improving overall health care, we need to manage care rather than just manipulate it.

For example, there is a dearth of health care providers predicted over the next several years. Education and administrative costs for providers are discouraging many doctors from continuing in their fields of expertise. Why would doctors want to stay in a practice when a high percentage of time is spent filling out medical forms and chasing payments instead of spending time caring for patients?

There are, however, some positive signs that we are beginning to change the way health care is managed in the U.S.

Our politicians and news media are recognizing the social and economic realities of our health care system.  Success will come from the cooperation and coordination of providing health care between providers, patients and payers (insurers).

We need to take best practices and individual successful encounters and make certain they become the norm rather than an exceptional experience.

Health care technology, applied correctly, will be one way to help us move the needle toward economical and efficient health care. It will allow medical professionals to increase their scalability and effectiveness, while leveraging a small pool of health care workers.

A case in point: CH Mack is emerging as a leader in providing managed health care software solutions for the changing face of health care. Our new MedCompass™ software allows health care providers to track and treat patients with its patient-centric system.  It utilizes easy-to-use, browser-based media and interactive Web applications.  It employs service-oriented architecture to help users integrate claims, care guidelines, payroll, EMR, lab data and billing, and other health information resources.

Being committed to better health care management is a first step toward a healthier nation. Besides being patients ourselves, we all have grandparents, parents, spouses, and children whose lives will be vastly improved.