Patient engagement that doesn’t require manual contact can enhance staff productivity and improve clinical outcomes in public safety organizations across the country, according to CareMessage, a company that announced the initial release of a up-to-date mobile messaging tool designed with these goals in mind.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT
The nonprofit says the integration feature of its Health Equity Engine patient activation platform is intended to drive a key reporting metric within the Unified Data System for federally qualified community centers.
It is also designed to combat seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. FQHC patients are disproportionately affected by diabetes, with 14% diagnosed with the disease, compared with 11.6% of the general population, CareMesage noted. Additionally, nearly 30% of FQHC patients have uncontrolled diabetes.
With Automated Gaps-in-Care Journeys, the platform integrates with electronic health records to automatically identify patients with uncontrolled diabetes and enroll them in messaging programs that can schedule lab visits, schedule appointments, track referrals, provide access to diabetes management programs, or provide education.
The company said 400 community health organizations in 45 states that exploit the platform — FQHCs, Tribal Health Centers and other community health facilities — can leverage mobile messaging technology to fill gaps in care for 10 million underserved patients.
Patients can receive messages in over 60 languages via built-in CareMessage templates, and the content of messages can also be personalized.
BIGGER TREND
As Dr. Emily C. Webber, chief medical information officer at Indiana University Health and a 2024 HIMSS Changemaker Award recipient, said this year, providing resources to patients via text messaging is one way to ensure equity in healthcare access for the underserved.
Despite the need for access to services, FQHCs and other community health centers may also face high no-show rates, which burdens organizations and causes unnecessary delays in care for patients waiting for appointments.
Up-to-date York City’s Urban Health Plan turned to AI technology to address higher-than-average no-show rates and lower patient no-show rates over three months. After the algorithms analyzed EHR data, UHP implemented a combination of interventions, including messaging patients with same-day virtual rescheduling options, targeted phone calls, and more.
“We had a multi-faceted approach to patient access and engagement across the board,” Alison Connelly-Flores, UHP’s chief medical information officer and a board member of the Up-to-date York eHealth Collaborative, said last year.
IN THE DOCUMENT
“This is a major step forward in technology available to FQHCs to improve clinical outcomes for some of their most vulnerable patients,” CareMessage Chief Strategy Officer Cecilia Corral said in a statement. “We are excited that CareMessage is the first to market and continues to advance our mission of improving health equity for five million low socioeconomic patients by 2028.”
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