The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives has released its annual year-end digital health trends, revealing six key findings in 2021. Using data and insights from hospitals and centers participating in the CHIME Most Wired survey , he’s rounded up the top health trends for health systems across the country.
Here are six trends featured in the report:
1. Technology related to COVID-19
The pandemic has prompted 87% of organizations to adopt patient flow systems, encouraged more than 90% of organizations to report vaccination data to relevant agencies, and inspired some hospitals to invest in contact tracing technology.
2. Less value-based care
Financial pressure from the pandemic has slowed the shift to value-based models of care. Average total revenue for fee-for-service models increased 5 percentage points from 2020 to 76% in 2021.
3. Population Health Management
Participation in population health management monitoring was stable. Organizations relied on their EHRs and a combination of technologies for these activities.
4. Opioid management
Opioid reduction strategies and techniques were rolled out to all organizations in 2021. Electronic opioid prescribing and maintaining prescriptions were the most widely used techniques.
5. Patient Engagement
After the rise of telehealth in 2020, the use of telemedicine stabilized in 2021. Patient portals and apps, however, expanded their capabilities and organizations reported high patient engagement.
6. Security
Adoption of components that contribute to a proficient security plan has remained consistent. Adoption of technological security measures has seen the strongest growth, increasing by 10 to 13 percentage points since 2020.
