Webinar: How Two Large Health Systems Gained Success with ADT eNotifications

Healthcare organizations are working fervently to meet the new May 1, 2021 deadline put in place by CMS for automated notifications. This new rule states hospitals must send electronic event notifications of a patient’s admission, discharge and/or transfer (ADT) to another healthcare facility, provider or practitioner. Failure to comply and meet this new industry standard would result in the loss of certification. However, there is much more at stake for hospitals than simply complying with this new requirement as the efficient and secure exchange of health information is vital to improving care coordination, outcomes, and costs.

To help offer a glimpse as to how hospitals and health systems can quickly and efficiently meet this new mandate, Consensus – a division of J2 Global Cloud Services – along with our partner Secure Exchange Solutions, brought together leaders from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and the Winchester Hospital Independent Physicians Association (IPA) for a timely webinar: “How Two Large Health Systems Gained Success with ADT eNotifcations.”

Moderated by Bevey Miner, Consensus Health IT Strategy and CMO, the webinar’s expert panelists included UPMC Medical Director of Interoperability Kristian Feterik, MD, MBA; Winchester Hospital Director, HIE at Highland Management William J. Mills III; and Secure Exchange Solutions President and COO Michele Darnell.

ADT notifications: paving the way for seamless care coordination

Both UPMC and Winchester Hospital knew significant changes needed to occur almost immediately, meaning these organizations needed a quick, efficient solution to streamline their workflows. During the webinar, Dr. Feterik and Mills provided background information on their organizations and what led to the realization of a need for the implementation of ADT notifications. From trying to achieve seamless data exchanges within hospitals, keeping providers in the loop responsible for patients’ care and handling uncooperative EHR vendors, the need for a standalone ADT-based notification solution was essential.

Both Dr. Feterik and Mills knew there might be bumps in the road, but a solution had to be found to move toward better interoperability and further improve continuity of care. The application of ADT notifications allowed UPMC to begin effectively coordinating with post-acute care management and care teams while the Winchester Hospital Independent Physicians Association was able to track when and where patients were admitted to hospitals or urgent care facilities, or if a patient visited a provider outside of the network.

The participants went on to share lessons learned based on their real-world experiences rolling out ADT notifications within their organizations along with how these notifications improved their continuity of care. Additional topics discussed were problems solved by the implementation of ADT notifications, different implementation options for hospitals, expected outcomes and the blueprints needed for success.

While there is still work to be done, both organizations are confident in their abilities to meet and comply with the May 1, 2021 deadline.

Follow Consensus for Healthcare on Twitter for more information and to view live tweets from the webinar.

Watch the complete webinar here: “How Two Large Health Systems Gained Success with ADT eNotifications”