While the debate continues over   Healthcare Reform, Health Experience Reform is taking place every day. Leaders in the healthcare industry, like Mercy Health System based in St. Louis, Mo, are not waiting for legislation to prompt them into action. Mercy has implemented one of the most aggressive Electronic Health Record initiatives in the country, linking together patients and doctors across a seven-state area encompassing Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The system is a foundation for a new care model that promises a transformation of the health care experience, away from acute-care and toward a more distributed and preventative care model that is meshed into the community, at retail locations and in the home. But the cornerstone of effective Health Experience Reform is also a well-educated patient. Smarter patients make smarter doctors. As access points expand, customers/patients have to be educated about when to go where. Case in point: One of Mercy’s hospital’s in Hot Springs, Arkansas, was witnessing a dramatic increase in non-emergent Emergency Department visits that was driving up costs while at the same time diverting valuable ED resources from those who really needed it.  Analysis showed that in just one year a handful of non-emergent cases generated nearly $700,000 in cost. So the health system recently implemented a campaign at the point of care and in the media called “Know Before You Go”, an attempt to educate the community on alternative access points for care, including express care and primary care. Mercy has realized that expanding the care model is directly dependent on educating patients on how to help control costs by accessing the right type of care for the right reason.

With patient empowerment must also come patient enlightenment.