DSRIP Reveals Shortcomings in Health Tech
Crain’s Health Pulse; 11/18/2014
New York’s health IT community is hopeful that the DSRIP reform process will encourage a coming together of health technology across the state. But the fragmented landscape of health tech vendors presents some challenges.
In order to meet DSRIP’s population health goals, entities must share data on the patients they have in common, said Dr. David Cohen, executive vice president of clinical affairs and affiliations at Maimonides Medical Center.
“We’re talking about much more than medical facilities, but also multiple community-based providers and the correctional system,” he said yesterday, speaking at the annual Digital Health Conference in Manhattan. “We need something that connects organizations and allows the input of lots of data from lots of different systems.”
The New York eHealth Collaborative, the organizer of the conference, is hoping that this data gap will incentivize the use of the SHIN-NY, the statewide network of medical records whose adoption is lagging among small clinical groups. Adoption is complicated, given that not all DSRIP participants have an electronic health record.
“We can’t wait for all our partners to have an EHR,” said Dr. Cohen. “We have five years for DSRIP, and the process won’t be done by the end, but hopefully we’ll have a sustainable model to go forward.”
Panelist Lori Evans Bernstein, president of GSI Health, predicted that DSRIP participants for a time will use two systems—an internal one internally, and another to collaborate with partner institutions—because many existing EHRs can’t exchange information with other systems.
One key to DSRIP’s success will be the ability of performing provider systems to manage patient populations without adding costs. “You want to be able to use your technology to get patient information to the right person at the right time, not add hundreds of staff,” said Stephen Rosenthal, chief operating officer of Montefiore Care Management. “For many vendors, that capability is not there.”