We're often asked what it means when we say SWHR is a clinically integrated network (CIN). The answer is it depends on who you are! Let’s examine what CIN means to:
- Doctors and other healthcare providers who care for patients. SWHR has more than 7,000 providers composed of primary care physicians, specialists and advanced practice providers.
- Hospitals, surgical and ambulatory care centers where patients are treated. The SWHR network includes 31 hospital locations and more than 650 clinics or other sites of care.
- Everyone who pays for healthcare – employers, health plans, the government and patients.
The dictionary definition of CIN
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, publishes a helpful glossary of terms. It defines CIN as:
… a term used to describe a collection of clinicians from different specialties who create processes and systems for managing and coordinating the care they deliver to individual patients.
A CIN can include clinicians from hospitals, clinics and private practices. No matter where they practice and see patients, the clinicians commit to:
- Use medical practices and treatment that scientific evidence has proven effective.
- Coordinate care so patients are treated as quickly as possible in the right setting (office, ambulatory care, hospital).
- Eliminate redundant tests, unnecessary treatments and any care that's not an efficient use of healthcare dollars.
The engines under the CIN hood
At SWHR, as in other large CINs, it takes a combination of leadership, technology and mutual commitment to succeed as a clinically integrated network. There is a good chance an organization is a clinically integrated network when:
- Doctors, nurses, therapists and other clinicians are linked by information technology systems that allow them to view and contribute to each patient’s medical history and recorded data.
- Medical leaders communicate best-practice guidelines throughout the CIN and monitor patient outcomes individually and collectively to see that guidelines are followed.
- Teams of CIN specialists – nurses, social workers, nutritionists and pharmacists – use the intelligence of data analytics to identify and support patients who need help learning about their conditions, making choices about their care, navigating the healthcare system and finding community resources.
A related term – health information exchange (HIE)
Health information exchange (HIE) is a term related to a CIN. HIE describes technology that allows everyone involved in patient care to share that information electronically – and abandon the old system of paper records and fax machines.
CINs benefit from and rely on the development of HIEs to ensure they can meet their promises to improve health care with better:
- Quality
- Efficiency
- Value
Those are standards that everyone can agree on.
