EMR-Driven Disease Management Reduces Mortality, Costs

EMRs keep on proving their mettle in the area of care coordination.

The latest evidence comes from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which improved outcomes by mining its EMR and electronic disease registries to match patients with heart disease to clinical pharmacy specialists and "personalized" nurses. In a study published in the November edition of the journal Pharmacotherapy, Kaiser researchers reported an 89 percent reduction in mortality, as well as cost reductions of $60 per day for cardiac patients enrolled in a disease management program, as compared to a control group.

The program, called the Kaiser Permanente Collaborative Cardiac Care Service, can notify pharmacy specialists if a patient doesn't pick up a prescription or if a cholesterol test reveals a need to change medications, for example. The pharmacists or nurses then can contact individual patients to help them make the necessary adjustments to their treatment.