Safety Net Connect (SNC), a leading provider of innovative healthcare technology solutions, today announced that healthcare systems across the nation are now utilizing SNC’s Converge – a Next Generation eConsult Solution – to facilitate care coordination and specialist access for the treatment of opioid addiction.

Community eConsult Network (CeCN), a program of Community Health Center, Inc. and the Weitzman Institute, is a national leader in the efforts to improve access to specialty care for underserved populations. Using SNC’s eConsult technology to connect community health centers and primary care providers across the country with a network of specialists for addiction treatment is consistent with CeCN’s core mission.

“Addiction treatment can be challenging for primary care providers – particularly for community providers and practices in rural areas,” explained Daren Anderson, M.D., Director of Weitzman Institute. “Using eConsult, we can connect physicians in even the most remote regions with expert guidance from specialists in addiction medicine.” Dr. Anderson added: “Patients struggling with opioid addiction often have concomitant and complex needs for mental health and social services. eConsult technology also enables us to facilitate access and coordinate care management among these providers.”

“We’re excited to see our eConsult technology being used to make a meaningful difference for patients and families struggling with opioid addiction,” said Keith Matsutsuyu, CEO of Safety Net Connect. “We developed Converge to improve access to specialists and care coordination for underserved populations – expansion into addiction medicine is a natural evolution driven by the real-world need of providers in the field.”

How Converge Next Generation eConsult Works
When a patient has a health complaint that may need specialty attention, their PCP can use the Converge platform to initiate a dialog or electronic consultation (“eConsult”) with a Specialist. Integrated decision support and referral guidelines help to triage requests to participating specialists who can efficiently respond with recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, and referral. While some patients may need to see a specialist, a majority of eConsults provide PCPs with the necessary guidance to manage patients in the primary care setting.

About Community eConsult Network
Community eConsult Network (CeCN) is a novel eConsult service provider working with primary care practices, payers, state governments, and academia led by Community Health Center, Inc. CeCN links primary care practices to specialty care providers through eConsult technology to increase access to specialty care for medically underserved populations; to improve efficiency, health outcomes, and quality; and to create better communication and collaboration between primary care providers and specialists. For more information, please visit https://communityeconsults.com/

Safety Net Connect (SNC), a leading provider of innovative healthcare technology solutions, is pleased to announce that Converge, the nation’s largest eConsult platform, has successfully delivered more than 1 million eConsults.

SNC’s “Converge” is the next generation of eConsult, a scalable asynchronous telehealth platform that can help both small and large healthcare systems transform care coordination, increase provider capacity, and rapid access to high quality specialty care — all while reducing healthcare costs. Converge seamlessly connects medical, behavioral, and social services providers across previously fragmented healthcare networks and technology systems — improving outcomes for underserved populations.

“It’s an honor to have reached 1 million eConsults, thanks to our partner organizations, whose innovative ideas and dedication to the underserved are transforming our healthcare system,” said Chris Cruttenden of SNC. “We’re proud to be the leading technology provider for organizations serving vulnerable populations. Converge democratizes healthcare with sustainable improvements in rapid access to high-quality specialty care for everyone.”

Converge has successfully served over 10 million Medicaid, low-income and underserved patients, engaged with thousands of primary care and specialty providers, and implemented enterprise-level platforms for the second and third largest Medicaid health systems in the country. One of the first and largest eConsult systems in the nation, studies demonstrate Converge has produced significant outcomes, including:

• decrease in wait times for specialty care by as much as 89.2%
• eliminating the need for face-to-face specialty care appointments in 68.8% of cases
• maintaining or enhancing quality-of-care with simultaneous cost savings
• and in providing a sustainable, long-term improvement in specialty care access

How Converge Next Generation eConsult Works

When a patient has a health complaint that may need specialty attention, their PCP can use the Converge platform to initiate a dialog or electronic consultation (“eConsult”) with a Specialist. Integrated decision support and referral guidelines help to triage requests to participating specialists who can efficiently respond with recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, and referral. While some patients may need to see a specialist, a majority of eConsults provide PCPs with the necessary guidance to manage patients in the primary care setting.

Media Contact:
Kristine Nash-Wong
734-904-4137
kristine.nash.wong@safetynetconnect.com

Safety Net Connect (SNC), a leading provider of innovative health care technology solutions, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with OCHIN, a nonprofit health care innovation center providing solutions that promote quality, affordable health care for all.

“Safety Net Connect’s suite of care coordination solutions are a natural addition to our technology portfolio,” explained Abby Sears, OCHIN’s Chief Executive Officer. “We’re dedicated to finding innovative technologies that make a meaningful difference for patients and the providers who care for them. By measurably improving real-time data exchange, collaboration between systems and providers, and sustainably increasing access to care, SNC helps us fulfill our mission.”

With this partnership, OCHIN customers will have preferred access to SNC’s web-based care coordination solutions, including SNC’s premier products “Converge” and “Connect.” Converge is a next-generation eConsult technology that facilitates an electronic connection between primary care providers and specialists, as well as behavioral health and social services, to ensure multi-disciplinary, whole person care. Connect is an electronic care coordination system that bridges the gaps between disparate providers and health care systems through real-time cross-network connectivity, tracking, notifications, and reporting. SNC solutions have produced significant outcomes in reducing readmissions, specialty care wait times, and cost — all while maintaining quality of care.

“We are excited to be selected as a strategic partner of OCHIN,” said Keith Matsutsuyu, CEO and co-founder of SNC. “Being a trusted partner of an international leader in health care technology innovation is truly an honor and serves as further validation of progress towards our own mission to provide transformative solutions that increase equity and quality of care for underserved, safety net populations.”

About OCHIN
Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit OCHIN is one of the largest and most successful health information and innovation networks, serving over 500 organizations comprised of more than 10,000 clinicians across the nation with solutions that improve the integration and delivery of health care services. As a learning organization, OCHIN started with a commitment to deliver health information technology support and services and has continued to provide its expanding community of customers and partners with the innovative tools, knowledge, and voice needed to participate in the national health care landscape. Learn more at www.ochin.org.

Media Contact:
Kristine Nash-Wong
734-904-4137
kristine.nash.wong@safetynetconnect.com

By Eric Wicklund

A telemedicine consult platform for cardiology cases saved almost $500 per patient in Medicaid costs over in-person treatments, according to a newly released study.

In what’s being billed as the first published randomized study of the eConsult platform, researchers at Community Health Center and the University of Connecticut Health Center found that the telemedicine platform, which facilitates virtual consults with a specialist, yielded lower mean adjusted total costs of $655 per patient, or lower mean costs of $466 when adjusted for non-normality, compared to those using face-to-face consults over a six-month span.

In addition, the eConsult group reported reduced costs of $81 per patient for outpatient cardiac procedures, as well as improving access to care for underserved patients and reducing the rate of no-shows for providers.

Read the full article here.