Patient complexity is one of the biggest factors reshaping the health care industry. Unfortunately, it's not top of mind for most hospitals. That's going to change rapidly as value-based principles and capitated models take hold, incentivizing hospitals to limit inappropriate health care utilization.

Basic-complexity patients will shift out of the hospital for multiple reasons: Some who never should have been admitted in the first place will have new alternatives as care models evolve; others will be transitioned to
lower-cost settings as monitoring and treatment technologies evolve and reimbursement focuses less on volume.

Currently, hospital facilities aren’t set up to cost-effectively treat basic-complexity patients, who typically use fewer resources and have shorter lengths of stay. But they are starting to explore alternative, lower-cost approaches as they transition to population health strategies and take on greater reimbursement risk. The shift has already begun, particularly for select surgical procedures in specialties like gynecology, ophthalmology and urology. More will follow.

Please join Lauren Smeeding from Kurt Salmon, a global management consultancy, for a webinar discussion on how and why patient complexity is reshaping care delivery, on Tuesday January 26th, 2016 at 1:00 PM Eastern. Click here for detailed information and to register or call 209.577.4888.