Hospitals Embrace Protocol-Driven Transitions of Care to Reduce Readmissions
EVANSTON, Ill. & LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Care Team Connect is pleased to announce the addition of Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, part of the MemorialCare Health System, and Southwest Home Health Care, in partnership with a local Austin health system, to its growing roster of clients. The Care Team Connect system was successfully deployed for both clients in less than eight weeks, allowing them to rapidly bring to scale efforts to reduce hospital readmissions.
Care Team Connect provides a technology platform in which hospitals, community providers, family members and patients collaborate to improve patient outcomes while significantly reducing healthcare costs.
The work with Care Team Connect reflects an important way in which hospitals and care management groups are taking action as the date for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) penalties for hospital readmission draws closer, Medicaid programs seek ways to balance state budgets and private payers are renegotiating hospital contracts to reduce payments for readmissions.
Jan Gameroz, Manager of Disease Management, is leading the effort at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA. “Our Disease Management Program has been in its pilot phase for the last year,” she said. “As we sought to expand our existing program in light of potential readmission penalties, we saw Care Team Connect as a platform to help us bring our work to scale. Care Team Connect’s web-based solution helps us focus our nurse navigators, call center and telehealth initiatives on the right patients at the right time.”
“Care Team Connect’s evidence-based, patient-specific protocols will allow us to insure consistent and appropriate care is provided to our patients post discharge,” said Gameroz. “Its reporting features will help fill the gap of process management, allowing us to track our outcomes in terms of the protocols and care provided. This will allow us to see the elements that are most highly correlated with the outcomes we want to achieve.”
The owners of Southwest Home Health Care in Austin, TX have developed a transitional care model which helps hospital systems bridge the chasm in the post-discharge continuum of care. This unique model is focused on mitigating preventable readmissions, in part, by assisting patients as they are discharged from the hospital to home, skilled nursing facilities or other appropriate settings. This approach facilitates the opportunity for patients to successfully coordinate their own care in post-discharge weeks and months.
“We selected Care Team Connect for two key reasons,” said Jim Casey, Partner at Southwest Home Health Care. “The first is that it provides an evidence-based, patient specific, care plan that can be viewed and shared by our care managers, the hospital, community providers and our patients. This real-time care plan will allow each patient’s care team to take immediate action before a patient experiencing out-of-range symptoms needs an unnecessary emergency room visit or hospital admission. The second is their ability to quickly implement the platform, a benefit of their software-as-a-service model. We successfully deployed the platform in roughly four weeks.”
Ben Albert, Care Team Connect co-founder and CEO, said: “In the last quarter, we have seen hundreds of hospitals and industry leaders make a priority of better care transitions and readmission prevention. We’re excited to welcome these two clients to our growing roster of organizations focused on improving care coordination across the continuum. We are uniquely well-positioned to help facilitate these programs. Our platform and professional services team form partnerships and drive strategy to help our clients scale efficiently and effectively, resulting in a broad impact on the communities we jointly serve.”
About MemorialCare Health System
MemorialCare Health System is a nationally recognized not-for-profit integrated health care delivery system with top ratings for quality and safety. With 10,000 employees and 3,250 physicians in Los Angeles and Orange counties, MemorialCare Health System includes Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach, Community Hospital Long Beach, Orange Coast Memorial and Saddleback Memorial; four medical groups – Bristol Park Medical Group, Memorial Prompt Care, Memorial Family Medicine, and Specialty Physicians of Long Beach; three MemorialCare HealthExpress retail clinics; and numerous outpatient health centers. These medical centers—serving nearly 4 million people— fill critical community needs as the area’s major tertiary provider and in a number of cases serving as the sole community hospital in communities experiencing significant growth. To learn more, visit www.memorialcare.org.
About Southwest Home Health Care
Southwest Home Health Care is a leader in providing professional health care services to patients in the home setting including skilled nursing care, physical, occupational and speech therapy, medical social work and has specialized programs in transitional care, diabetic management, fall prevention and emotional wellness. With multiple locations in Texas, including Austin and Houston, Southwest Home Health Care is committed to improving the health care delivery system in its area and reducing preventable hospital readmissions through its coordinated team approach to providing patients with quality health care services focused on patient recovery, comfort and wellness. To learn more, visit www.swhhc.com.
About Care Team Connect
Utilizing evidence-based best practices, Care Team Connect provides a technology platform which enables collaboration among hospitals, community providers, family members and patients to improve outcomes in ways that can also reduce healthcare costs. By localizing how information and tasks are shared among care team members, Care Team Connect creates transparency and accountability while also leading the way toward a patient-specific model of care. Easy to use and backed by extensive education, training and follow-up support, Care Team Connect is designed to optimize healthcare performance throughout the continuum of care. To learn more, visit www.careteamconnect.com.
CONTACT:
Care Team Connect
Bill Brody, 773-368-0422
E-mail: [email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America California Illinois Texas
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Technology Data Management Software Practice Management Health Hospitals Professional Services Insurance Medical Supplies Nursing Managed Care
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