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Healthcare Industry's Triple Aims Highlight Need For Process Coordination

Appian Contributor
May 25, 2016

Modern business process management software systems specialize in connecting data from diverse sources and bringing it to end users regardless of which devices they are using. This functionality is emerging as essential in the healthcare industry, as clinical staff members face a growing need to use data within care strategies. This is particularly true as the healthcare sector workstoward excellence in the industry's Triple Aims effort.

In a recent interview with Becker's Hospital Review,F. Patrick Robinson, dean of the Capella University School of Nursing and Health Sciences, explained that coordinating efforts to achieve the Triple Aims is critical.

Understanding the Triple Aims and what they mean for healthcare

According to the report, the Triple Aims encapsulate improving patient care, advancing population health, and reducing the per capital cost of healthcare. Capella University is among the industry leaders that is also pushing for a Fourth Aim, which is creating a better work life for healthcare professionals. Regardless of whether you are looking at three or four aims, however, Robinson explained that the key is to avoid working in isolation and instead focus on strategies that provide improvements across each of these areas of emphasis.

"It's important to understand it's not three separate aims - it's a Triple Aim," Robinson told Becker's Hospital Review. "The Triple Aim is a singular concept. If one would pursue only one of the aims, you could throw one of the other aims off. It's the simultaneous pursuit of all three parts of the Triple Aim that will result in improved performance."

"Strategic, coordinated operations are critical within the healthcare sector."

Robinson's words underline the need for strategic, coordinated operations within the healthcare sector. The need to deliver gains that are associated with individual care, community health, and costs requires deep data integration involving both strategic and day-to-day business processes.

Developing methodologies to achieve the Triple, or even Quadruple Aims

Whether you are focused strictly on the Triple Aims or are also working toward the Fourth Aim of improving work conditions, streamlining data sharing across organizational channels is critical. When an emergency room nurse records a patient coming in with a condition, an administrator analyzing community trends regarding that condition should have near immediate access to that data. This means not only moving that information across different application and device boundaries behind the scenes, but also automatically protecting personally identifiable information along the way.

BPM tools feature the built-in regulatory protections, data sharing, and process automation solutions needed to make these types of operations possible. As such, all stakeholders in the healthcare sector will have the information they need to hit their most ambitious targets.