Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., a global leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, unveiled Signature Solutions, a comprehensive suite of clinical services and technologies designed to assist hospitals and medical practices to seamlessly transition to value-based healthcare models by maintaining excellent patient outcomes, while maximizing procedural and cost efficiencies across the entire episode of care.
Last year alone, the US launched two major value-based healthcare mandates, the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), and Europe and Canada have been actively passing similar policies that base reimbursement on patient and health economic outcomes.
Signature Solutions had its genesis in the mid-1990s, when Zimmer Biomet launched its expert consulting services in response to the evolving global shift toward value-based healthcare. Since then, the company has advised more than 450 hospitals and healthcare facilities worldwide on improving the value of their musculoskeletal programs by providing better care, lowering costs and increasing the number of patients treated. Signature Solutions will integrate Zimmer Biomet's established consulting platform, with a strategically curated suite of technologies and services, to form a one-of-a-kind offering that drives improvement across every aspect of the healthcare value creation equation. Initially, Zimmer Biomet will offer the comprehensive suite of solutions to musculoskeletal healthcare service lines at select, academic facilities in the US, with a broader release scheduled for 2017.
"Our 90-year legacy and leadership in musculoskeletal healthcare, coupled with more than a decade of consulting experience delivering measurably improved outcomes for large and small institutions worldwide, gives Zimmer Biomet a deep understanding of the levers driving success in the value-based healthcare environment," said David Dvorak, president and CEO of Zimmer Biomet. "Signature Solutions will encapsulate our exclusive and extensive knowledge of the new healthcare landscape into the first end-to-end suite of clinical services, technologies and proprietary analytical tools, which are designed to work seamlessly with the institutions' existing infrastructure to improve quality outcomes, provide more efficient care and increase provider throughput."
The Signature Solutions offering consists of clinical services, solutions and technologies cultivated by Zimmer Biomet through existing and planned strategic partnerships and acquisitions. The core components of Signature Solutions will include:
Interactive and proven patient engagement tools designed to educate patients about the procedure and treatment options, facilitate physician-patient communication, and increase patient adherence to pre-op, intra-op and post-op/rehab protocols.
Data mining and analysis platform that enables hospitals to collect critical patient-reported outcomes data (i.e., satisfaction with care, pain management, facility, etc.) that can factor into the level of reimbursement provided for each procedure.
Expert consulting services, digital health software solutions and personalized, patient-specific medical technologies and instruments that help hospitals improve patient outcomes, increase overall productivity and surgical efficiency by streamlining workflow, and enhance surgical and rehab protocols.
"As patient outcomes figure more prominently in the bundled payment environment, healthcare institutions are under increased pressure to minimize inefficiencies along the entire episode of care while delivering superior quality of care and a positive patient experience," said Dr. Todd Dietrick, orthopaedic surgeon at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. "Over the past year, we engaged Signature Solutions' expert consulting services to guide our clinical and operational teams to improve the value of our orthopaedic program by creating standards for patient optimization and surgical performance. The new technologies and digital software components will further enhance the utility of Signature Solutions and provide healthcare institutions with an all-in-one solution to optimize performance in a value-based care model."
"We're excited to redefine the meaning of innovation in our sector with the launch of Signature Solutions, a truly unique and differentiated offering that successfully leverages our technological expertise, industry know-how, strategic alliances and extensive network of institutional relationships," added Dvorak. "We look forward to a broad-scale launch of Signature Solutions timed to coincide with institutions seeking ways to redesign care protocols and identify potential cost saving opportunities in the new bundled payment environment."