CIO Applications, July 24, 2018

At Verge Health, we make achieving and sustaining high reliability possible

Amidst the numerous and evolving compliance challenges in the healthcare industry, there is a clear need to entrench a governance and risk management system that operates in a coordinated and systematic fashion following processes gleaned from other high-risk industries like nuclear power and the airlines. Understanding this growing need, South Carolina-based Verge Health launched its Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) strategy with the ultimate aim of ensuring patients remain safe and protecting margins for healthcare organizations to allow them to continue quality care. The firm’s proprietary GRC model adopts a comprehensive approach to ongoing, connected management of governance, risk and compliance, for hospitals and other healthcare organizations to ensure they remain survey ready— but more importantly, patient ready.

In an interview with CIO Applications, Dr. Mark Crockett, CEO of Verge Health shares his vision for the healthcare arena and provides insights on the importance of GRC to this industry.

On Implementing GRC in the Healthcare Space

One of the biggest challenges that exist to implementing GRC in the healthcare space include the fact that people in healthcare are often unfamiliar with GRC.

In addition, the healthcare arena has some unique challenges when embracing traditional GRC concepts. For instance, many of the physicians treating patients in hospitals are not employees but independent contractors. Traditional governance structures will struggle without taking into account complexities of credentializing and privileging as key components. In addition, many core functions are not captured electronically, and those that are typically do not integrate with one another. This issue hinders hospitals from gaining comprehensive knowledge about contractors, and makes it challenging to deploy true GRC. Understanding these pertinent challenges in a care delivery setting is the basis for why Verge Health developed an automated surveillance and rounding system to ensure effective implementation of GRC in healthcare systems across three core areas including organizational compliance, patient and employee safety and practitioner management.

Trends influencing the Healthcare Industry

From my perspective, the first trend transforming healthcare is that there is now a currency for delivering exceptional service. Organizations such as Cleveland Clinic provide extraordinary patient experience—and at a lower cost. They are on an absolute trajectory to consistently deliver higher quality care and that is being rewarded with real financial value. To ensure that this equation remains true in light of rising patient financial responsibility, a demand for transparency and value- based reimbursement has created an absolute requirement for GRC in healthcare.

The second trend healthcare is witnessing is a surge in advanced technologies that automate manual processes and support data-driven decision making. More vendors are delivering cloud-based solutions that are relatively easy to integrate and create a greater availability of data. We are starting to see more companies delivering the type allows healthcare delivery organizations to take a much broader view of quality. This single platform approach is a strategic differentiator for Verge Health and its clients.

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