Shared Decision Making, reducing the cost of care through innovation

Study demonstrates how Shared Decision Making-based health coaching dramatically reduces the overall costs of care, hospitalizations, and surgeries

Health Dialog today announced that results from its recent study on Shared Decision Making have been included in the Healthcare Leadership Council's (HLC) 'The Future is Here: A Compendium of Healthcare Innovation' as one example of a health improvement concept that is making a positive impact on transforming today's healthcare system. 

The document can be downloaded by visiting the HLC's website at http://www.hlc.org/TheFutureIsHere.

'Enhanced Support For Shared Decision Making Reduced Costs Of Care For Patients With Preference Sensitive Conditions', authored by David Veroff, senior vice president of innovation at Health Dialog, compared the effects on patients engaging in key health and treatment decisions receiving a usual level of support with the effects of receiving enhanced levels of support. The study, published in the 2013 February issue of Health Affairs, shows that compared with patients who received the usual level of support, patients who received enhanced support had:

• 5.3% lower medical costs (including 8.7% lower costs for those with heart conditions);
• 12.5% fewer hospital admissions; and
• 9.9% fewer preference-sensitive surgeries (including 20.9% fewer preference-sensitive heart surgeries)

"Health Dialog is demonstrating how improving the decision making process between physicians and patients can improve health and curb costs," said Mary R. Grealy, president of the Healthcare Leadership Council. "What Health Dialog is achieving exemplifies the message of this compendium, that today's healthcare leaders are successfully shaping a 21^st century system that keeps people healthy, improves patient outcomes, maintains affordability and combats the escalation in chronic disease."