Study: Care management system saves elderly lives, and money

A lot of health IT news lately has been cautions about IT not being the ultimate panacea for health care; it has to be done right, experts keep cautioning. Well, here's a study that shows one way to do it right.

The study looked at 2,288 elderly patients, whose average age was 76. On average each patient had two chronic conditions. Half of the patients received standard care at their primary care clinics in Utah; the other half got Care Management Plus, which used computerized records to track the patients and assigned nurse managers to review those records regularly and make sure that no medication or treatment was falling through the cracks.

The results were positive. Over the first year, six out of 100 of the seniors receiving the higher level of monitoring died, while nine out of 100 of the seniors receiving normal treatment died. After two years, the positive results continued: 13 out of 100 Care Management Plus patients died, while 17 out of 100 of the standard care patients died.

The study authors were positive about the cost benefits of using this approach, as the number of hospitalizations among the IT-managed patients was significantly lower: 8 percent lower over the two years.

The study was performed in Utah, but the study designers are from Oregon Health and Science University.

To learn more about the study and its results:
- read this Portland Tribune piece

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