New 3M Software Analyzes Costs and Outcomes of Episodes of Care

Salt Lake City, Utah (July 31, 2013)--Accountable care, bundled payment, and population health management demand better coordination of the patient’s entire episode of care. To assist healthcare organizations in understanding the costs and outcomes of longitudinal care, 3M Health Information Systems has introduced 3M Patient-focused Episodes (PFE) Software, a new solution with patent-pending clinical logic that analyzes provider costs, resource use, and performance across episodes. By offering a patient-centric view into costs and outcomes, the software helps healthcare facilities analyze the effectiveness of care delivery, predict costs and refine patient treatment processes to improve outcomes. . 3M PFE Software defines over 500 episodes of patient care spanning inpatient and outpatient encounters as well as chronic and acute diseases. Unlike other analytic tools that focus on services related to a single disease, the software considers all of a patient's conditions and treatments during a specified period when assigning episodes. “The conventional approach to defining episodes of care doesn’t account for patients with multiple conditions and complex health histories,” said Richard Averill, senior vice president, Clinical and Economic Research at 3M Health Information Systems. “3M’s approach is to focus on the patient as a whole. We developed Patient-Focused Episodes Software to analyze episodes and health risk in a way that is clinically meaningful to clinicians so they can understand and act on the information.” 3M clinical researchers developed 3M PFE Software using a design similar to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), a concept that is widely used and accepted by health professionals. The software leverages the 3M Clinical Risk Grouping (CRG) methodology, which differentiates patients based on their overall chronic illness burden within each episode, using all diagnoses, procedures and drug codes prior to the episode. This provides a transparent and clinically precise classification that can be understood consistently among providers. 3M Health Information Systems is an international leader in coding and patient classification systems with more than 5,000 hospitals worldwide using 3M solutions to code and group patient data for decision support, quality measurement, and reimbursement. More information about 3M Patient-Focused Episodes Software is available www.3Mhis.com/PFE or by calling 800-367-2447. About 3M Health Information Systems Best known for its market-leading coding system and ICD-10 expertise, 3M Health Information Systems delivers innovative software and consulting services designed to raise the bar for clinical documentation improvement, computer-assisted coding, performance monitoring, and quality outcomes reporting. 3M’s robust healthcare data dictionary and terminology services support data interoperability and the expansion and accuracy of the electronic health record. With nearly 30 years of healthcare industry experience and the know-how of more than 100 credentialed 3M coding experts, 3M is the go-to choice for more than 5,000 hospitals worldwide that want to improve quality and financial performance. For more information, call 800-367- 2447, visit www.3Mhis.com or follow on Twitter @3MHISNews 3M is a trademark of 3M Company. 3M media contacts: Mollie Houns Price Houns Associates 952-920-6951 Mary Kokkinen 3M Public Relations 651-733-8806