Preventative Patient Care with Clinical Decision Support

Preventative Patient Care with Clinical Decision Support

Cardiovascular screenings alone save tens of thousands of lives each year.. Yet, millions of Americans aren’t getting regular care that could prevent them from dying of treatable causes. How can we fix this?

A valuable resource that can improve patient preventative care is Clinical Decision Support (CDS). CDS tools give targeted information to clinicians, administrators, caregivers, and even patients.

How can the implementation of CDS save lives through prevention? Read on to find out.

Streamlining Data

Elderly patients often see many specialists, doctors, surgeons, and caregivers. This results in an enormous amount of digital data, including test results, medication lists, and more. 

Medical professionals who use Clinical Decision Support (CDS) technology have access to a full spread of patient data. These intelligent tools can analyze data from across multiple providers to check for medication interactions, potential problems, or duplicate treatments.

Avoiding repeat tests and increasing awareness between providers creates a comprehensive picture of a patient’s health. This allows their team of doctors to be on the same page about preventative care. Together, they ensure more targeted treatments and effective patient strategies.

Better Communication

CDS tools offer a variety of features, such as reminders and notifications. Depending on the specific needs of the provider and patient, these alerts could be delivered to all individuals in the chain of care. 

Administrators receive notifications to schedule patient reminder calls or annual checkups. Patients receive automated services through smartphone apps, patient portals, emails, or calls. Electronic health records update in real time depending on the results of evaluations. 

CDS will only trigger these communications based on appropriate criteria. These predictions ensure follow-up measures get communicated to staff and patients at the right time, instead of creating notification fatigue.

Disease Prediction

Not only does CDS offer a comprehensive view of patient data, but it also uses AI to monitor changes and predict future complications. Machine learning can alert clinicians to underlying medical issues and help improve diagnosis time.

For example, CDS tools reduced the diagnosis time of sepsis in patients by 12 hours. Consistent evaluation of patient analytics can increase early and accurate diagnoses of complex issues with better accuracy. Real-time surveillance informs doctors signs of deterioration that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

Decrease Hospital Readmission

Especially in the elderly population, complications often result in trips to the hospital. Studies show that the use of CDS reduces hospital readmission and length of hospital stays. Medical professionals without CDS systems in place saw a 14% higher readmission rate and 6.2% increase in hospital stay time. 

These programs also decrease care cost per patient. The estimated savings per patient with CDS adherence was approximately $1000 each.

Clinical Decision Support: The Future of Medicine

As technology improves, so does the quality and value of patient care. Clinical Decision Support is not intended to replace a clinician’s professional medical expertise. However, using it can assist in significantly improving patient outcomes.

Deep machine learning can supplement preventative medicine by performing more accurate data tracking and predictions. Through the use of advanced analytics, providers have successfully reduced costs, hospital stays, dangerous medication interactions, and repeat testing.

NCN Technology is here to help you improve relationships with your patients and their health. Contact us today for more on developing a CDS solution that is tailored to your needs.