The closure of rural hospitals across the United States over the past decade has reached a critical juncture, leaving millions of Americans without access to vital healthcare services. According to a Becker’s Hospital CFO Report, 104 rural hospitals have closed since 2005 and 600 rural hospitals, which makes up about 30% of rural hospitals in the United States, are in financial difficulty and are in danger of closing. This is a concerning trend that is affecting millions of people living in rural America, who are at risk of not having access to medical care.
What is the Problem?
There are a few reasons why hospitals are closing. Financial difficulties, staffing shortages, and other operational challenges are forcing many rural hospitals to either close or shut down some of their services. Patients often must wait weeks or even months for appointments, rather than days. The resulting impact on local communities cannot be overstated, as increased travel distances for medical care are not just inconveniences, but life-threatening.
We have a solution that can save hospitals, and at the same time, give doctors the information they need to better serve their patients. It’s called MedKaz®.
What is MedKaz Exactly?
MedKaz is not another electronic medical record (EMR) system. Rather, it is a patient-focused health record system doctors use alongside their EMR system. It gives them the information they need about their patients that is otherwise not available to them. They continue to enter their notes in their EMR system, not the MedKaz.
MedKaz aggregates copies of all their patient’s records from all their providers, and the application to manage them, on a mini drive. The patient owns and carries it on a keyring or wears it as a pendant and gives it to their providers whenever they need care. The providers use it to quickly get up to speed with their patients’ issues and to coordinate their care and thereby avoid medical errors and unnecessary costs.
The MedKaz business model is as unusual as the MedKaz itself. It’s free to doctors. They use it alongside the EMR system and receive financial incentives for using it and to upload copies of their encounter records to the MedKaz Server. This is where the waste in their EMR system is turned into new revenue and income for the rural hospital.
How Does This Help Prevent Hospitals from Closing?
MedKaz helps prevent hospitals from closing in a few ways:
- It enables doctors to streamline their workflow and save time with each patient.
- Helps doctors better coordinate their patients’ care.
- It precludes the need to order unnecessary and redundant visits, tests, and procedures and saves the money they’d otherwise spend.
By providing information they need to coordinate their patients’ care, providers are able to preclude the wasted efforts otherwise incurred committing medical errors and conducting unnecessary visits, tests, and procedures.
MedKaz restores their satisfaction of helping patients and allows them to better treat their patients. It’s why they went into medicine! So, this gives them more fulfillment and diminishes the threat of burnout.
While it may be hard to believe that this little MedKaz device can accomplish these “miracles”, it absolutely can! MedKaz is a simple but powerful solution that empowers doctors to improve outcomes and reduce the cost of care to their patients. By eliminating waste, streamlining the workflow, being able to see more patients sooner, and generating new income, rural hospitals can return to sound financial footing. For more information, please visit https://medkaz.com. We look forward to working with you.
