MCG Announces First-Ever Evidence-Based Guidance for Hospitalized Patients with Active Comorbidities

SEATTLE, March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- MCG (part of the Hearst Health network), supplier of evidence-based clinical guidance to health plans and providers, recently released Multiple Condition Management, the industry's first solution specifically designed to inform the care of hospitalized patients with more than one clinically active condition.

Patients with multiple active conditions present a special challenge to the nation's health system. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately two-thirds of total spending on healthcare is associated with care for the more than one in four Americans with multiple chronic conditions. Until now, evidence-based clinical guidelines have focused on single diagnoses, which has made the effective treatment of comorbidity all the more challenging.

Multiple Condition Management addresses that need with evidence-based guidance that supports care for patients with both a primary diagnosis for which a physician admits a patient and a second clinically active diagnosis. The new guidelines focus on the patient's recovery in the hospital, including the probable length of stay and any factors that could lead to an extended stay, based on a proprietary analysis and clinical review of the Premier database that cover approximately 20% of hospitalized patients in the United States.

"There is meaningful evidence about the differences in treatment between single and multiple conditions," says Jon Shreve, President of MCG. "Multiple Condition Management presents this evidence in a single location in order to allow clinicians to manage these patients with confidence."

The inaugural edition of Multiple Condition Management comprises fifteen guidelines addressing three secondary conditions that most frequently affect a patient's recovery and length of stay in the hospital: heart failure, diabetes, and renal disease. Each guideline addresses a particular combination of conditions, providing a comorbidity-specific Optimal Recovery Course, a Multiple Condition Benchmark Length of Stay (MBLOS), and a description of conditions and clinical situations that could justify a hospital stay exceeding the MBLOS.

About MCG

MCG, now part of the Hearst Health network, independently develops and produces evidence-based clinical guidelines and software used by more than 2,200 clients, including 1,300 hospitals and eight of the ten largest U.S. health plans. Updated annually by an experienced team of clinicians, the care guidelines support the care management of a majority of Americans. For more information, visit www.mcg.com.

MCG is part of the Hearst Health network, which also includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health and Homecare Homebase. The mission of the Hearst Health network is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from the Hearst Health network reaches 76% of discharged patients, 133 million insured individuals, 30 million home health visits, 1.88 billion retail pharmacy prescriptions and 3.26 billion prescription claims. Extensions of the Hearst Health network include Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab. www.hearsthealth.com