A short time ago, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at Allscripts Client Experience (ACE) in Chicago. While at the conference I recorded a podcast focused on care coordination. Here’s a preview of my discussion:
I got the idea to start CarePort when I was a medical student. My first interactions with patients at the bedside – particularly those who needed post-discharge care – was eye-opening. I couldn’t believe patients were given so little guidance when it came to choosing a post-acute provider such as a nursing home – not much more information than something out of the Yellow Pages. I could find more information about the quality of hotel half way around the world than the nursing home down the street. I founded CarePort because patients deserve more transparency and guidance when making such a critical decision.
The challenges extend far past the choice in a post-acute provider. Even once a patient is at a nursing home for example, the patient’s care team – doctors, nurses, care coordinators – may lose track of the patient because information is not shared across care settings. It’s important for everyone to be on the same page so that care is coordinated. Today, we can track packages shipped from one side of the country to the other. The same visibility is needed as patients transition from hospital to nursing home to home.
The CarePort platform is built to help patients choose the right post-acute provider and then to track the patient’s recovery to make sure that timely and appropriate care is delivered.
At ACE, it was gratifying to hear from one of our customers (Holyoke Medical Center) about how CarePort has directly impacted outcomes. Michael T. Ipekdjian, HMC’s director of transitional care management, shared how CarePort has helped patients choose post-acute providers and the has allowed the care coordination team stay informed throughout a patient’s recovery. The technology enables the team to focus on patient care rather than phone calls and data-gathering. It’s clear that Mike and his team have done great work based on their impressive outcomes. HMC has seen reduced readmissions, higher care transitions scores, and increased patient satisfaction. HMC also impressively saw a 10% increase in patient keepage – meaning patients are staying in-network and choosing high-quality post-acute care providers.
All of these metrics – patient keepage, reduced readmissions and patient satisfaction – are related to each other. And Mike and his team are doing a great job of managing dozens of programs and thousands of patients with fantastic results. They are using technology and programs to follow the patient journey from acute care, which is exactly what I set out to do with CarePort. It all comes full circle.
