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This series shares ThoroughCare’s Growth Model and breaks down each stage to provide a pathway and focus for key strategies and actions that can optimize performance, outcomes, and revenue at each stage of care management program growth. The following provides links to each article as they are published for quick reference.
Stage 5: Optimized
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Stage 1: Start, scale, and optimize
New and existing care management programs can struggle to navigate the road ahead and identify the best practices that will help them launch successfully, operate efficiently, and grow consistently.
Because various care management programs have specific billing requirements and take a holistic, longitudinal approach to care, healthcare leaders and clinicians may find it challenging to plan for success.
ThoroughCare’s team of in-house clinical experts, technologists, and industry specialists developed a proven and systematic model for analyzing, improving, and deploying care management programs.
The Care Management Growth Model provides a pathway and focus for those areas that, when optimized, underpin the most successful and profitable programs.
ThoroughCare’s Growth Model explained
Figure 1 shows the five stages of the ThoroughCare Care Management Growth Model.
As a program moves from stage 1 to stage 5, certain areas evolve and change, including:
- Key program metrics
- Level of operational maturity
- Common challenges faced
- Development priorities
- Indicators of scale readiness
- Growth opportunities to move to the next stage
Figure 1: The five stages of ThoroughCare’s Care Management Growth Model.
The five stages are primarily organized around a program’s level of efficiency and effectiveness, also known as maturity and growth potential. This includes evidence that indicates a program needs further development, training, staffing, or tools to improve and advance to the next stage.
Additionally, programs typically demonstrate the characteristics outlined in the table below at each stage. Identifying the stage of each operational area helps highlight where development, tools, or training may be needed to advance to the next stage.
How to use the Growth Model framework
The Growth Model is geared toward the needs of new and existing care management programs across all types of healthcare organizations, including:
- Primary care practices
- Specialty practices
- Accountable Care Organizations
- Health systems
- Health plans
- Care management service providers
However, every organization and its programs follow a unique path to success. Each stage will look somewhat different based on objective metrics and the subjective experiences of staff, clinicians, and patients.
What’s crucial is having a clear vision of what success could look like and measurable objectives that guide decisions, strategies, and investments.
The Growth Model highlights the current state and identifies the necessary changes to realize greater outcomes, manage more patients, and generate increased ROI.
As shown in Figure 3, moving into higher stages increases the potential for higher returns on investment.
Figure 3: ROI growth potential at each stage.
How ThoroughCare supports customers leveraging the growth model
ThoroughCare uses the Growth Model as a framework to guide customer conversations, analysis, and strategic recommendations. It provides a consistent foundation for collaborative decision-making, technology deployment, and training.
Our proven care management growth model is part of an overarching approach that drives everything we do, as shown in Figure 4. This combination of tools, expertise, assessments, and analytics enables us to walk alongside each provider, care manager, and leader to optimize care management.
Figure 4: How ThoroughCare uniquely optimizes care management through next-gen technology, services, best practices, and support.
Specifically, ThoroughCare helps providers move to the next stage, or skip stages, as in the case of a new care management program, by providing four differentiators, including:
Differentiator #1 - Opportunity Analysis: Our Opportunity Analysis helps us meet new and existing programs where they are and grow from there—our approach, utilizing ThoroughCare Analytics, yields data-driven and insightful recommendations and decisions.
Differentiator #2 – Best-in-class care management software: The ThoroughCare platform enables a comprehensive approach to care management across the patient’s journey. The platform provides streamlined tools and capabilities to engage patients, manage workflow, and simplify care delivery and interventions while tracking and reporting progress.
Differentiator #3 – Expert clinical and operational advisors: Our expert advisory team includes seasoned clinicians and care management professionals. They have witnessed and developed best practices to guide decisions around hiring, training, team-based care, and establishing efficient and effective clinical operations. They ensure that the platform, content, and education are tailored to each client’s specifications.
This same team may recommend targeted and tailored education to align with the skill needs of the care team as they progress through each stage. They can also suggest and oversee the development of software customizations to address unique assessment, workflow, or care management needs.
Differentiator #4 – Outcomes and ROI perspective: We go beyond providing excellent technology, training, and support by focusing on the economic and reimbursement aspects of successful care management. Our goal is to create and share a vision for growth and scale that feeds the organization’s financial health.
ThoroughCare’s company-wide focus is on helping providers start, scale, and succeed in every care management program. Having worked with more than 700 healthcare organizations nationally, we’ve built our platform, services, training, and support around what has enabled growth.
