Is your tech stack ready for the TEAM model?

Preparing for TEAM doesn’t have to be a struggle. In fact, SNFs can use healthcare information technology to prep for TEAM and stand out as a preferred partner. Here are a few tech-powered strategies to help you get there:

1. Identify TEAM patients right at the start

Success begins at admission. Your tech stack should flag TEAM patients the moment they arrive. EHR-agnostic care management workflows that integrate with hospital systems make this possible. These workflows help you streamline onboarding, align with hospital expectations, and ensure every TEAM patient gets the right level of attention from day one.

If your current system can’t identify TEAM patients and tailor care plans accordingly, it’s time to reevaluate your technology capabilities.

2. Use predictive analytics to reduce risk

TEAM rewards SNFs that keep patients out of the hospital. To do that, you need to predict which patients are most likely to be readmitted and why.

AI-driven financial analytics can help. These tools support risk adjustment, predictive modeling, and reimbursement optimization. You can identify high-risk patients, monitor trends, and allocate resources more strategically.

For example, if a wound care patient is flagged as high risk for readmission, your team can intervene early, adjust protocols, and monitor healing more closely. These small changes drive major cost savings.

3. Lean on data to find performance gaps

To thrive under the TEAM model, you need a clear picture of how you’re doing clinically and financially.

Your analytics platform should help you:

• Understand historical costs and patient outcomes
• Benchmark against peers and payor expectations
• Slice data by payor type to compare performance
• Pinpoint underperforming areas and their root causes

Let’s say your data shows that patients with congestive heart failure have higher readmission rates. With the right tech, you can dig deeper to find out why. Once you know the cause, you can act and improve.

4. Standardize care across your team

Consistency is key in bundled payment models like TEAM. SNFs should use their tech stack to support standardized, evidence-based clinical protocols across all shifts and staff roles.

This is where digital workflows shine. They help ensure every patient with a specific condition—like COPD, stroke, or joint replacement—receives the same high-quality, protocol-driven care, regardless of who’s on duty.

Standardization helps eliminate waste, reduce variation, and improve outcomes. It also shows hospital partners you take quality seriously.

5. Improve care coordination across settings

Effective care coordination is essential to reducing costs and improving outcomes.

Use your tech stack to:

• Build shared care pathways with hospitals and post-acute partners
• Automate patient outreach during care transitions
• Enable real-time alerts when a patient’s condition changes
• Facilitate communication between nurses, social workers, physicians, and case managers

Care coordination tools ensure no patient falls through the cracks. They also keep everyone informed and accountable, two critical ingredients for TEAM success.

6. Track and improve over time

Don’t just make changes. Measure whether they’re working.

Your system should give you real-time dashboards to:

• Monitor cost trends and utilization
• Track shared savings and penalties
• Compare performance against benchmarks
• Rank improvement opportunities by ROI

Let’s say you implemented a new wound care protocol to reduce hospitalizations. Your dashboard should show whether readmissions are going down, costs are improving, and outcomes are trending up.

If they’re not? Adjust and try again.

That’s the power of a connected, intelligent technology stack. It helps you adapt, improve, and stay competitive.