Pacific Business Group on Health

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Silicon Valley E-Health Pilot

Problem: In spite of advances in Internet communication, Americans are still forced to play telephone tag with their doctor, may not have a chance to ask all their questions given time constraints, must stand in line at the pharmacy to find out if their medication is covered and navigate complicated "phone trees" to get an answer to their benefit question. Information-intensive health care lags behind virtually every other industry in the management of information. Consumers are frustrated, doctors are dissatisfied and employee productivity suffers. And employers feel the impact. Inefficiency in the management of health care information grates on providers, consumers and purchasers—all pay for the administrative waste in the system.

PBGH Role and Project Description: The Pacific Business Group on Health and the Silicon Valley Employers Forum (SVEF) have developed two e-Health Pilots to serve as a catalyst for innovation, quality improvement and consumer engagement by enhancing patient-doctor communication. SVEF launched these two projects to see what state-of-the-art information flow can do for health care. The pilots are the result of a unique collaboration between employers, providers and technology leaders.

These pilots test communications between patients and providers, as well as satisfaction with the cost, efficiency and feasibility of compensation for "e-visits." They will enable employees to conduct online medical visits, request appointments, fill prescriptions and receive additional health care services online.

PAMFOnlineT tests of a set of secure, Web-based, health care services delivered by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) to employees of Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, NEC Electronics and Oracle Corporation.
WebVisitT, a secure application from Healinx Corporation, permits patients to report non-urgent symptoms or other health care needs to their physicians and receive advice via the Internet. Nearly 2,000 employees from the same companies participating in PAMFOnline plus Cadence Design Systems and Stanford University are participating. The medical groups involved include San Jose Good Samaritan Medical Group and Santa Clara County IPA.

The project is supported by the work of participating medical groups and vendors and is funded by the PBGH Quality Improvement Fund and SVEF members.

Impact: The two pilots are designed to optimize physician and patient communication, enhance satisfaction, reduce employee absenteeism, improve quality and achieve greater administrative efficiencies through technology. Pilot evaluation after six months measured employee satisfaction, physician satisfaction and employee timesaving.

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