Every day, we receive a variety of notifications, all with different levels of importance or significance in our lives. We get emails from both work and personal accounts, push messages from social media, pop-up notifications from various digital apps, and more.
But when a patient is seen by a provider—which often necessitates follow up care—most notifications are still shared via paper, many times delayed by days or even weeks, and it is typically up to the patient to ensure that the follow up care is obtained in a timely manner. This lack of consistent communication, planning, and coordination across the care continuum can result in poor patient outcomes and an overall frustrating patient experience.
This is where the CommonWell Event Notification Service (ENS)—currently focused on Admission, Discharge and Transfer (ADT) Notifications—can make a substantial difference as a method for providers to be alerted when their patients receive care in other settings.
Today, I’m excited to share it’s now Generally Available for CommonWell Service Adopters and their customers. This complementary service, which has been a priority for CommonWell for years, notifies subscribed clinical provider sites when a patient interacts with another participating care provider, furthering our vision of patient-centric care. This can have a significant impact on communication among an individuals’ care team, as providers will be able to then query the CommonWell network to learn more about the recent care event and determine what next steps may be needed.
When a linked patient is admitted to an ENS-publishing CommonWell Connected emergency room, its ENS-subscribing CommonWell Connected primary care provider (PCP) would be notified of their admission. This helps the care team to ensure their patient receives any follow up needed, helping to reduce unexpected readmissions and any adverse impact to their health and wellbeing. Likewise, upon transfer – within the facility, between inpatient and outpatient facilities, and vice-versa – as well as upon patient discharge, participating providers will receive these notifications for linked patients, all of which contain clinically relevant information and can play a critical role in the care coordination process.
I’m proud to be a part of such a game-changing Alliance. I remember when Alliance members stood on the HIMSS19 Interop Showcase Floor demonstrating CommonWell ENS when CMS announced new Conditions of Participation (CoPs) requirements for ADT notifications. Today, we deliver upon that commitment, adding new value on top of our existing network of 22,000+ provider sites sharing upwards of 25 million documents per week.
I look forward to the day when services like CommonWell ENS will be so widespread and utilitarian, that patients and providers alike will wonder how we ever lived without it… kind of how I feel about my smartphone.
To learn more about CommonWell ADT Notifications, visit our Connect to the Network page.