Erich Mounce: Investing in a Robust Electronic Medical Record Key to Measuring Practice Performance

Even without input from the OCM, community practices can measure performance data through a robust electronic medical record like Flatiron, said Erich Mounce, chief operating officer, OneOncology.

Transcript

For community practices not involved in models like the OCM [Oncology Care Model], is it difficult to measure practice performance? What are the best ways to do this?

I don’t know if it’s difficult, I think they can do it. From my perspective they need to invest in a really robust electronic medical record, Flatiron would be a perfect example of that, and make sure they’re getting data from all of their clinical measurements, as well as, the revenue cycle measurements—I think those are really important pieces. Whether you’re an OCM or not, you can still measure your staging data, you can still measure your MIPs [merit-based incentive payment system] data, you can still measure your patient satisfaction data. I think that you should measure how you’re adhering to your own care pathways or your own regimens. Those are all things that allow you to measure your performance on a clinical basis, but also from a financial performance basis. So, absolutely you can do it. The real issue is, are you able to have enough data to really cycle through a process that is statistically relevant, number 1, and 2 is investing to get that data sometimes is really expensive. So, for group practices, they don’t want to become IT companies or data companies—I really think they need to come back full circle to your first question [of] what do I get out of a partnership, how do I survive—and that partnership I think is really important to get those kinds of things.