Evidence based referrals, part of the growing transparency trend in healthcare, provides data on clinical outcomes for procedures before a referral has been made in order to pair the patient with the best possible physician, based on the data for that procedure. Research shows that for many procedures, high volume hospitals tend to have better outcomes due to the enhanced skills through repetition of procedures, essentially a “practice makes perfect effect, while also having the system wide support through, capable clinical teams, adherence to best practices, sophisticated equipment, and the enhanced abilities of auxiliary medical personnel. These factors combined produce positive resulting in order for patients to expect the safest possible surgery at hospitals with low mortality rates and high rates of adherence to clinical practices known to improve surgical outcomes.

Evidence shows that if patients seeking specific high-risk surgeries or treatments would chose high-volume hospitals for their care, this could save more than 4,000 lives annually. However, due to the lack of data currently available today and interoperability issues in EHRs, evidence based referrals are not widespread.

MedVoy’s evidence based referral workflow has the ability to incorporate any evidence based metrics into its referral process thus making sure that the patients are referred to the right facility with the better processes, and positive outcomes.

source http://www.academyhealth.org/Training/content.cfm?ItemNumber=1691