By Aine Cryts
Analytics can speed up the time it takes to figure out a problem—such as an increase in 911 medical calls from a subsidized senior living facility or the need for lung cancer screenings, says Barbara Baldwin, vice president and CIO at Annapolis, Md.-based Anne Arundel Medical Center, a regional health system that serves an area of more than one million people. With information Anne Arundel receives from its electronic health record (EHR), the medical center is able to respond more quickly to chronic diseases in the community it serves.
AXIS recently talked to Baldwin about tackling population health through the use of technology and by deepening community partnerships.
AXIS: Tell us about the community you serve and your approach to population health.
Baldwin: Anne Arundel Medical Center reaches the eastern shore of Maryland, which is more rural, all the way to suburban areas that skirt Washington, DC. With that geography comes quite a span of population.
Caring for the community is not just about hospital care or emergency department care. It includes all of the social support networks that are critical to the wellbeing of our community members. Much of our population health work is done in great collaboration with resources in the community.
AXIS: What are some of the greatest health challenges faced by your community?
Baldwin: Some of the long-term chronic diseases in our communities include diabetes, congestive heart failure, and obesity. Our work on population health includes putting together a community needs assessment to help tackle those long-term chronic conditions. We do that in conjunction with our health department, the agency on aging, and other agencies. We’re very mindful that the environment in which our patients live affects their health – and that’s why our approach is collaborative.
We’re recognizing that the health of our community is not just related to hospital or emergency room visits. We have to be at our best at that critical level, but our approach is not about illness. It’s really about helping our community to be heathier today. Our strategic plan calls for being “healthier together,” and that means being engaged in the community.
AXIS: How are you using analytics to make a difference in your patients’ lives?
Baldwin: We’re seeing an “EHR 2.0.” The new thing that’s happening is we’re spending time trying to find real-time metrics from information that’s contained within the EHR.
What’s fascinating about the EHR is it provides the chance for us as an institution – and not just as defined by the walls of our institution but our larger community – to use that tool in a way that hadn’t been available before. That’s new and disruptive and a great opportunity for the community. With information we receive from our EHR, we’re able to respond faster, and we’re able to implement programs more quickly. We’re able to identify strategies that are more effective and more precise.
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About Barbara Baldwin:
Barbara Baldwin has been vice president and CIO of Anne Arundel Medical Center since 2012. She has responsibility for the overall strategy and deployment of electronic information and technology services. Previously, Baldwin has served as CIO at several healthcare organizations, including the University of Virginia Health System.
A fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, Baldwin is certified as a project management professional. She previously served as chair of the University Health System Consortium’s CIO Council, as chair-elect for the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Information Resources, and as a board member for the Virginia Health Quality Center. For nine years, she served her community as a member of the United Way/Jefferson Region’s program review and funding committee.
Baldwin received a bachelor of science degree in environmental health from Norfolk, Va.-based Old Dominion University and was awarded a master’s degree in health administration from Duke University.