Matthew has been out at the Going Digital Behavioral Health reception meeting all of Jessica’s fans, and discovering what they like about the show! Meanwhile a big funding round for Carebridge ($140m), with more $$ for Bicycle Health ($50m probably not to be spent on bikes) & Nava Benefits ($40m). Plus LeanTaas gets bought by private equity group Bain Capital.
Managing Surgical Wait Times in the Intra-COVID-19 World
Finding the Right Prioritization Model
By JUSTIN SPECTOR
Restrictions on elective surgical volume in hospitals across the United States are causing a dilemma heretofore unseen in the American healthcare system. Surgeons across services have large and growing backlogs of elective surgeries in an environment where operating room (OR) capacity is restricted due to availability of inpatient beds, personal protective equipment (PPE), staffing, and many other constraints. Fortunately, the U.S. is not the first country to experience and deal with this situation; for many countries, this is the normal state of medicine.
By combining the accumulated experience of health systems around the world with cutting-edge technologies, it is possible to make this crisis manageable for perioperative leadership and, potentially, to improve upon the preexisting models for managing OR time.
The first step in creating an equitable system that can garner widespread buy-in is to agree upon a method for categorizing cases into priority levels. Choosing a system with strong academic backing will help to reduce the influence of intra-hospital politics from derailing the process before it can begin.
Why Cases Should Be Prioritized
If your hospital has a mix of surgeons who perform highly time-sensitive cases — cases where patient quality of life is substantially impacted — as well as cases with minor health or quality of life outcomes, it is important to make sure there will be enough capacity to get the higher urgency cases done within a reasonable amount of time. This allows cases in the backlog to be balanced against new cases that are yet to be scheduled and will help to optimize the flow of patients through the OR.
Continue reading…Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 104 | OneMedical, KRY, ClassPass, Komodo Health & LeanTaaS
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I have a million deals to talk through. My Softbank rumor from last week hasn’t been announced yet, but there’s still plenty to discuss before JP Morgan. In this episode, get key takeaways from OneMedical’s S1, Swedish company KRY raising $155 million, ClassPass reaching unicorn status with a $285 million round, Komodo Health raising $50 million, and LeanTaaS raising $40 million. Be sure to follow along with all the JPMadness next week. —Matthew Holt