Financing Accelerates Hiring and Expansion into New Markets
ATLANTA, June 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Assent, provider of the award-winning PatientPad® self-service patient check-in and patient education solution, has received $7.5 million in a Series B funding round. The lead investors were Sanan Private Equity, the BIP Opportunities Fund and Buckhead Investment Partners (BIP). Imlay Investments and BLH Venture Partners, who led the Series A funding earlier this year, also contributed.
"We are pleased to receive this investment and validation from Sanan Private Equity and BIP, along with our existing investors, who clearly recognize the rapidly growing market opportunity we are addressing," said Andrew Ibbotson, president and CEO of Digital Assent. "Since launching PatientPad, the demand has been tremendous. It's now available in doctor's offices across half of the nation and this funding will help us realize our potential even faster."
The PatientPad is a wireless touch-screen solution that automates the patient check-in process and delivers targeted health information and advertising to interested patients while they sit in their healthcare provider's waiting room, exam room or treatment room.
This funding will fuel expansion of the company's sales, marketing and product development efforts. Since January, the company has sold nearly 1,500 PatientPads to 175 practices in 25 states to help streamline the patient check-in process. Ibbotson expects coast-to-coast coverage before the end of the year as Digital Assent aggressively launches the solution in all major metropolitan markets nationwide including Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington D.C. To meet the demand, Digital Assent will hire additional field representatives and other staff to support a faster national roll-out.
"Digital Assent's rapid growth -- supported by an adoption rate north of 90 percent -- is very impressive considering the company secured its Series A funding just a few months ago. Clearly this solution is one that is fulfilling a growing marketplace need," said Chemain Sanan, managing director at Sanan Private Equity.
Digital Assent will also use the funding for near-term product enhancements including point-of-care and group coupon offerings delivered via the company's new PatientCoupons™ deals service. This will permit physicians to offer cost-saving incentives on current or future elective products, services and procedures.
Since launching, PatientPad's educational and advertising content has been extremely well received by patients. Current click-through rates for the educational and advertising content delivered through the PatientPad are more than 20 times higher than similar content accessed via Internet search engines.
"Digital Assent's PatientPad has already proved beneficial on many levels from improving the efficiency of administrative processes to digitizing patient records," said Mark Buffington, partner at BIP. "Equally exciting is that the company is operating in three of today's hottest sectors -- healthcare IT, wireless and digital media."
Legal counsel to the company was provided by Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP.
About Digital Assent
Founded in 2009, Digital Assent is a fast-growing healthcare technology company based in Atlanta. The company's wireless touch-screen PatientPad® solution streamlines the patient check-in process and delivers targeted health information to interested patients while they sit in their provider's waiting or exam room. By automating patient intake, the PatientPad enables healthcare providers to collect patient information in a standard electronic format, more easily transition from paper to electronic health records, and improve the overall patient experience. For more information about Digital Assent and the company's rapidly growing PatientPad point-of-care network, please visit www.digitalassent.com or www.patient-pad.com. To learn more about the company's new PatientCoupons™ service, please visit www.patientcoupons.com.
SOURCE Digital Assent