Three easy ways to add risk stratification to your workflow

As value-based payment models grow, identifying at-risk patients has become even more important. It allows practices to proactively manage their patient populations, anticipate patient needs, and target resources where they’re needed most.

Incorporating risk stratification into your practice workflow doesn’t have to be arduous. Here are three ways to get started.

1. Use a daily team huddle to discuss and assign risk levels to the patients who are scheduled to be seen that day or the next.

2. Focus on a specific patient population, such as patients with diabetes, and assign an office staff member to run a report showing all of your patients sorted by A1C level. For each patient with an A1C over 9.0%, you could delegate a clinical team member to assign a final risk level.

3. Use designated weekly or monthly team meetings to discuss and assign risk levels to all your patients, beginning with those whose objective data suggest they are at potentially highest risk.

For more help, try the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) Risk-Stratified Care Management Scoring Algorithm, free to AAFP members.

Read the full FPM article: “Risk Stratification: A Two-Step Process for Identifying Your Sickest Patients.”