IBM (Armonk, N.Y.) and the Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier healthcare alliance announced plans to integrate health information from across hospitals and other healthcare sites. More than 2,400 hospitals and thousands of other healthcare sites will benefit from this model to help improve clinical outcomes, reduce waste and prepare for new methods of delivering care required by health reform.
IBM and Premier will develop an industry-first technology platform to gain insights on, measure and improve the health of the population. This will support hospitals, doctors and other health providers in working together to enhance patient safety while reducing the overuse of procedures, readmissions, unnecessary ER visits and hospital-acquired conditions.
Recent research from the Institute of Medicine and the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests enhanced use of health data is needed to reduce fragmentation of medical information that results in higher medical costs and increased likelihood of adverse medical events. In most healthcare settings, the data needed to make these improvements is stored in many different formats and multiple locations. This same information also needs to be made more accessible to support accountable care organizations mandated under the Affordable Care Act that reimburse providers for quality of care, not volume of care.
