“Relentless Pursuit”: How Community Health Network Is Partnering With Startups to Drive Transformation

When it comes to innovation in healthcare, there’s a common perception that it’s happening mostly at academic medical centers and large IDNs.

But in reality, it isn’t just the mega systems that are making an impact in the space. And it certainly isn’t limited to areas like Silicon Valley. In fact, some would argue that community healthcare organizations offer the ideal incubator for new solutions.

One of those people is Patrick McGill, MD, EVP and Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network. “You’re going to figure out the problems that challenge most health systems by partnering with us because 95 percent of the care in this country is delivered at organizations that look like us,” he said during a recent interview.

“And because of the way we’re structured, we can move fast,” McGill said of Community Health Network, a six-hospital system based in Central Indiana that includes more than 200 care sites and affiliates.

That ability is becoming increasingly critical as digital technology continues to change the way care is delivered. In today’s environment, “people have higher expectations for their experiences and healthcare has struggled as an industry to deliver on those,” said Allison Lodhi, Director of Strategic Account Integration.

To that end, organizations like Community Health Network are leveraging partnerships with companies like Praia, Notable, and Biofourmis to more effectively meet the evolving needs of providers, staff, and consumers. It’s an arrangement that can be mutually beneficial, Lodhi noted. “They need to understand how this technology applies in other settings, and we’re able to give that feedback in a constructive manner. And because we have an innovative mindset, we can think about not just where it is today, but where it could go.”

Praia

One of those partnerships is with Praia Health, a consumer platform designed to enable a better experience by marrying clinical and consumer information. According to Providence, the platform takes a health system’s services, programs, initiatives, and resources and systematically delivering them “to the right health consumers at the right time, based upon their unique best practices, protocols and preferences.”

Praia Health securely manages the data exchange between the solution, the health system’s EMR solution, and other health system data sources, increasing the flexibility and speed of third-party integration, while reducing its cost, the company stated.

What truly sold it, however, was Praia’s emphasis on authentication and identity management, which has been a challenge in healthcare. “We’re really excited to have that capability, but to also layer in other services that we have wanted in the past but couldn’t deliver because we didn’t have identity management.”

Biofourmis

Community Health is teaming up with Biofourmis, replacing its existing care-at-home technology with a solution that delivers and enables care both virtually and in person. With Biofourmis’ solution, patients will be monitored and cared for remotely by Community clinicians based on their conditions and clinical protocols, with a focus on early interventions to reduce hospital readmissions and ED visits, according to the company.

The other goal? Enabling people to receive care at home, which they’re tackling with a stepwise approach. “We’ve got home care. We’ve got robust primary care where we send providers out to the home,” he said. “The next phase is amp up our remote patient monitoring,” which will take them one step closer to having “a full-blown hospital at home.”

What separated Biofourmis from other companies was its ability to “leverage AI to understand and predict people who would be good candidates” for care at home. “We see this as being aligned to our value-based care strategy. Can we reduce the total spend and cost of care for these patients?”

Notable

Additionally, CHN is deploying Notable’s AI platform across the enterprise, focusing initially on automated chart review, care gap scheduling, and pre-visit planning. By allowing the staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on interactions, McGill believes they will be able to build stronger relationships and deliver higher-quality care.

Like many organizations, Community Health had relied on virtual scribes to help ease the burden, but found it to be “cost-prohibitive.” And so, they implemented the DAX Copilot, which made an immediate impact in terms of clinician satisfaction and productivity. However, it left a gap because virtual scribes weren’t just being used for transcription; they were also doing pre-charting and other activities.

That’s where Notable came in. But it wasn’t just to solve one problem, according to McGill. “The value and excitement that we saw was really around the platform level solution that they offered,” he noted. “That’s what I see. Can we get in early? Can we learn and grow together? Can we develop?”

Sure enough, his team is looking beyond pre-charting and hopes to utilize Notable for patient outreach, quality gap closure, chart navigation, and prior authorization.

“We look for platforms,” said McGill. “We look for partners who are willing to learn and grow with us. Maybe they come in to solve a niche problem, but from there we expand.”

The key, according to Lodhi, is finding a partner that’s the right fit, both from a technical and a philosophical perspective. “We look at things through a build-by-partner lens. We’ve already gone through a process to say, ‘this is not something we can do ourselves,’ or maybe we’re missing some key pieces,” she noted. “We’re looking for someone who can step in and help, and likewise can receive the value that we bring.”

The next frontier

Another critical element, both for healthcare organizations and technology companies, is a willingness to keep an eye toward the future and be able to anticipate the challenges that lie ahead.

One of those areas, according to McGill, is the administrative burden on providers and the ever-increasing cost of delivering care. “How do we do more with fewer people? How do we use technology to make them more efficient? I think that’s the next frontier.”

The other piece is the rising cost of care. And while historically, technology has not driven costs down, he believes AI might be the catalyst in changing that dynamic. “How do we empower people to do more, whether it’s self-scheduling or document completion or being the champion of their own health? That’s what we’re striving for, and that’s where a lot of these partnerships are coming from.”

Lodhi agreed, adding that while in the past, the right tools didn’t exist to help patients become “the general contractor of their own healthcare experience,” things have now started to shift in the right direction.

Maintaining that momentum, she noted, will require a continued dedication to solving “real problems” through creative thinking. “The work isn’t ever done. It’s a relentless pursuit,” she said. “But things are changing faster and faster. And so, we have to be able to see around the corner and deliver on what’s coming next.”