A primary focus in health care, from hospitals, the government and private insurers, is to improve treatment and efficiency. One key measurement: readmission rates.
Centegra Health System found that when case managers, home health aides, physical therapists and other care providers could easily communicate with each other about a shared patient, good things happened: readmission rates dropped, post-surgery stays in skilled nursing facilities shortened, and more patients successfully transitioned to less expensive post-procedure options like outpatient or community-based services.
The game changer, it says, was a private app from Chicago startup Dina, which connects various care providers and allows them to share information and status reports about a patient in the same way they might on Facebook or LinkedIn. The HIPAA-compliant network also electronically stores a patient’s charts, insurance and other vital information so everyone on the healthcare team has access to it. The network is open to professional caregivers and family members, although the Centegra program is limited to caregivers.
