As healthcare evolves into an increasingly competitive field, everyone is feeling the pressure. Patients are being presented with more choices and greater responsibilities. They are responding by seeking health care information and resources that help them make healthy decisions. For their part, individual providers must run more efficient operations that still attract patient base; they are becoming receptive to-and often demanding-connectivity tools that offer a better way. Similarly, an array of economic factors is converging upon provider organizations. Information technology (IT) is still a preferred means to strengthen quality and better manage costs.

With so much emphasis placed directly on cost and quality, the third principle for ongoing health care reform, Access, often gets lost in the shuffle. It's an unfortunate result of competitive dynamics unleashed in the economy's largest, most complex sector. But the problem is actually an opportunity. By addressing Access problems, from work flow bottlenecks, to resource management to complicated payer requirements, providers can positively impact both quality and cost.

It is certainly true that, in order to compete, hospitals, health systems, medical groups, ambulatory care centers and specialty care centers must first collaborate from within. For ideal patient Access, medical stakeholders must have Access to each other. Indeed, providers are perpetually searching for techniques to more tightly integrate internal operations and leverage established business partnerships. But as the long promised gains in IT productivity and returns on investment begin to materialize, how to handle patient Access and consumer connectivity are emerging as the key questions.

Building the bridge for patient/consumer/provider Access finally brings the entire health care continuum online. In the process of resolving the Access Management challenges, providers large and small are recognizing that they are also addressing the economic imperatives to mitigate administrative burdens and differentiate themselves to the general public.



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