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Tag: EQUICARE CS

Customer referral program: Help us spread the good news

Calling all Equicare users!  Are you happy with your experience?  Do you know another organization that could benefit from care coordination?

Introducing the Equicare Customer Referral Program

HandshakeIf you’re a friend of Equicare, why not spread the good news?  Nothing instills confidence in a prospective customer like a recommendation from a current user, so if you’re happy with Equicare, we’d like to enlist your help. Provide us with a referral to a health care provider interested in Equicare, and to show our appreciation, we’ll provide both of your organizations with a credit worth up to $3000 if they purchase EQUICARE CS.

How does the referral program work?

Complete this form to send us a referral, or just contact your sales manager with the details.  To qualify, the organization you refer can’t be an existing Equicare customer.  If the organization you referred to us purchases EQUICARE CS we will provide both of your organizations with a credit worth up to $3000 following the purchase.  This credit can be used towards Equicare  training, support,and services, registration at an educational event, or other avenues that suit your needs.  Rewards will be given to the referring and purchasing organizations, not to the individuals involved in the referral program.

Customer referral

Navigating the Cancer Experience @ AONN+ West Coast Regional Meeting

Thanks for joining us at the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) West Regional Meeting in Seattle earlier this week. And congratulations to RN Navigator, Robin Munoz, from California Cancer Center who won a FitBit in the Equicare prize draw!

AONN+ is the largest professional organization dedicated to navigation and we were pleased to sponsor this event, which gathered more than 150 nurse and patient navigators from west of the Mississippi. Attendees discussed the advancement of the navigation profession in the changing healthcare system, including:

  • issues regarding the evolution of the role of navigation in healthcare;
  • strategies for navigating diverse patient populations by cancer type and environmental factors;
  • methods for providing patient support and guidance in the age of personalized cancer care;
  • best practices regarding survivorship and psychosocial care; and
  • Commission on Cancer (CoC) pillars.

UCLA-based Jacqueline Casillas, MD, MSHS, contributed to the CoC conversation by focusing on the importance of the survivorship care plan in the continuum of care.

“Survivorship care plans help survivors navigate their healthcare needs by serving as their own health advocates,” said Jacqueline. Drawing upon case studies, she demonstrated how people have successfully developed these plans and addressed the needs of diverse patient populations.

At Equicare Health, we recognize the critical importance of patient navigation for improving patient outcomes. Our ECS comprehensive care coordination solution helps Nurse Navigators care for cancer patients from screening to survivorship—including navigation and psychosocial distress screening tools, survivorship care plans, and a secure, user-friendly patient portal.
Equicare booth @ AONN+ West Regional Meeting

Thanks for joining us at HIMSS15!

Thanks to everyone who made HIMSS15 in Chicago a successful event this year! Our first year exhibiting at HIMSS, we joined more than 1,300 exhibitors and 40,000+ attendees for this world-class event focused on major global issues in healthcare—including care coordination, population health management, and optimizing cost efficiencies.

Equicare booth at HIMSS15
Before the floodgates opened.

Prominent keynote speakers, including Former President George W. Bush and current National Care Coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo, addressed the necessity of patient-focused and cost-effective care, as well as the large-scale impact of developing comprehensive population health management systems.

Steve Lieber, President & CEO of HIMSS, echoed these ideas, noting that organizations must embrace technology as a vital tool for connecting people to the healthcare system and affecting critical change to improve care.

At Equicare, we support these goals in everything we do. EQUICARE CS, our comprehensive care coordination solution, helps organizations improve patient outcomes with better quality care, while increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs. Everyone wins!

 

 

 

Recognizing our success

We are plea2015 Branham 300 logosed to announce that we have cracked the “Top 250 Canadian ICT Companies” on the Branham300 in only our 2nd year on the list — moving from # 277 in 2014 to #244 this year.

We are in good company, with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Canada once again achieving year-over-year growth and setting a revenue record of $90.9 billion.

The Branham300 is a listing of Canada’s top public and private ICT companies, as ranked by revenues.

For more information about the Branham300: http://www.branham300.com/

 

Out and about this spring: ACCC, NCBC & HIMSS!

It’s been a busy spring at Equicare Health! After attending two workshops at the end of February—Commission on Cancer’s (CoC) Accreditation 101 in Chicago and the UPMC: Cancer Survivorship for Healthcare Providers in Pittsburgh—, the Equicare team had the pleasure of participating in two industry events in March.

Equicare booth at CoC Accreditation 101 Workshop
The calm before the storm: Equicare booth at the CoC workshop in Chicago
Ryan at CoC Accreditation Workshop, Feb 27, 2015
Ryan ready for action at the CoC Accreditation 101 Workshop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to Arlington, VA for ACCC’s 41st Annual Meeting:  CANCERSCAPE, where attendees gained insights into the healthcare policy landscape, quality measures and reporting, and the potential for big data to improve care. We were delighted to demonstrate how EQUICARE CS can help cancer centers improve patient care through coordinated navigation, survivorship, distress management and patient engagement programs.

NCBC was a wonderful opportunity to visit with our current customers and make new connections with other medical and industry professionals who are as dedicated as we are to improving breast health care for patients throughout their cancer journey—from diagnosis to treatment and through survivorship.

General session at NCBC
Another packed session at NCBC in Las Vegas

The HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition starts tomorrow in Chicago, showcasing the newest technologies, trends, and solutions in health IT. Equicare will be there—with 38,000 of our closest friends— to  demonstrate how we can help cancer centers and hospitals improve patient care and increase revenues. Drop by Booth 3376 to learn how EQUICARE CS can streamline your patient care coordination and help you deliver unparalleled survivorship care. Hope to see you this week!

Gearing up for HIMSS 2015!

HIMSS 2015 logo

Chicago welcomes the 2015 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, April 12-16, 2015, at McCormick Place. More than 38,000 healthcare industry professionals are expected to attend to discuss health IT issues and view innovative solutions designed to transform healthcare. We’re looking forward to showcasing EQUICARE CS, our complete oncology patient management solution, at this annual event.

Conference education sessions include pre-conference symposia on clinical and business analytics, HIEs, innovation, mobile health, nursing informatics, physicians’ IT and more. More than 300 peer-reviewed sessions, including workshops and roundtables, round out education offerings at HIMSS15.

George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, leads a strong roster of speakers that also includes Alex Gourlay, President, Walgreens; Bruce D. Broussard, President and CEO, Humana; and Jeremy Gutsche, Founder of Trendhunter.com and Author of “Exploiting Chaos.”

The HIMSS15 Exhibit Hall will feature the Connected Patient Gallery, Federal Health IT Solutions Pavilion, HIMSS First-Time Exhibitors Area, HIMSS Health IT Value Suite, HIMSS Interoperability Showcase™, Intelligent Health™ Pavilion (formerly known as Intelligent Hospital Pavilion), and three Knowledge Centers focused on clinical and business intelligence, disaster preparedness, and mobile health.

Drop by Booth #3376 for a demo of EQUICARE CS, our innovative patient care coordination solution. We look forward to seeing you!

Seeking Health Innovation Globally

HealthXL logo

Equicare was one of nine international companies selected to participate in the third HealthXL Global Gathering on February 27th in Dublin. HealthXL is a clearinghouse for innovation in healthcare. It aims to drive innovation in healthcare by catalysing collaborations between leading global brands and the most exciting technology companies to improve the lives of millions of people. An ambitious goal that we can get behind!

A collaboration of the leading minds in digital health, the HealthXL Global Gathering brought together more than 90 healthcare leaders from around the world seeking to find the next big thing in health tech. The focus was on discovering innovative solutions to major challenges in the areas of clinical trials, COPD, and heart failure.

Len Grenier, Equicare’s CEO, presented in the heart failure session, discussing how our robust patient care coordination platform can translate from our current focus on oncology patients to patients with other chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure (CHF).

Up to 2015 we were primarily working in oncology, with the vision to move into other chronic care management areas, such as heart failure, in the future. When HealthXL invited us to present at their Global Gathering, the opportunity worked as a catalyst for us to expand into that new market.

The opportunity to present in the Heart Failure Challenge gave us a platform to showcase our product in front of a world-class audience focused on that specific area. The panel was impressed with the potential of EQUICARE CSTM to be used in coordinating the care of CHF patients from screening to aftercare.

Panelists in the session were: Conor Hanley, PhD (Senior Vice President, Chronic Disease Management, ResMed), Chris Coburn (Vice President, Innovation, Partners HealthCare),and Dr. Robert Kelly (Head of Cardiology & Director of Innovation, Beacon Hospital). Dr. Vishal Gulati, Venture Partner, DFJ Esprit, moderated the panel.

We are excited to be part of the digital health revolution being driven by organizations such as HealthXL and relish our role in helping improve the lives of patients.

Finding the ROI in Survivorship

Based on our experience, most oncology healthcare providers believe in the value of navigation and survivorship, and most patients appreciate having access to it. These services can help providers ensure patients receive the long-term care they need, and help patients play a more active role in their health. The Institute of Medicine has been advocating survivorship since their 2005 “Lost in Transition” paper, and the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer has now changed their accreditation requirements to include survivorship planning.

So why isn’t everyone doing it?  One of the most common obstacles organizations face is cost.  Managing a large-scale survivorship program usually requires the use of new electronic tools, and often hiring dedicated staff members. For many organizations, the investment is hard to justify, especially in a time of shrinking budgets.

What many organizations don’t realize is that survivorship & navigation can actually deliver a return on investment, often within a few years of implementation. We are now pleased to introduce a Pro-forma tool that calculates what we expect this return to be. For example, take a look at the 5-year return from 2 fictitious, though typical, organizations below.

This tool was developed in partnership with American Medical Accounting & Consulting Inc (AMAC), one of the leading firms in the radiation oncology industry. Based on this reimbursement data, and information about the size, make-up and growth projections of an organization, we can calculate an expected 5-year ROI to help justify an initial investment. Although the data above is fictitious, it represents the real return organizations can expect to realize when using an electronic survivorship product like EQUICARE CS.

Don’t believe us?  Let us prove it!  Contact us to learn more about where these numbers come from and get an ROI calculation specific to your organization.

More questions?  We’ll try to answer some below:

  1. What’s the difference between incremental net income and ROI?
    The ROI is simply the difference between the total revenue and expenses of managing a survivorship program. The incremental net income is the difference between the ROI an organization realizes when using an electronic tool like ECS, and the ROI from running a manual survivorship program. This is an important figure to present when considering whether to introduce an electronic tool, or attempt a manual program.
  2. What is a manual survivorship program?
    In the table above, we reference a manual survivorship program – this is how we describe programs that are run using paper or excel spreadsheets. While it’s possible to run a program like this, it’s less efficient, and for some organizations, particularly free-standing clinics like the one in the example above, actually causes the organization to lose money.
  3. Where does the revenue come from?The major sources of revenue are from:
    • Increased rates of patient attendance at reimbursable follow-up appointments
    • Increased Nurse Navigator efficiency – fewer FTEs can manage the same (or more) patients
    • For hospitals with imaging – we include revenue from additional in imaging studies, which may have been lost without survivorship & navigation
  4. Do you include staff salaries in this calculation?
    Yes, we use your current size and plans for the growth of the program to estimate the number of nurse navigators (or other dedicated employees) required to manage the program now and in the years to come.  This is included in the expense calculation.

ECS for Clinical Trials

EQUICARE CS (ECS) was original designed for cancer survivorship, but it’s powerful enough to support a wide variety of other applications, including, as we recently discovered, Clinical Trials.  How can you use a tool aimed at survivorship for clinical trials?

Well, during a recent product management meeting, the team got into this discussion about clinical trials because one of our newly installed customers was looking for organizational support for a trial.  Once we started talking about it, we quickly realized that ECS could easily be used to support clinical trials. So much of clinical trials work is keeping track of stuff – medical tests, appointments, data submissions etc. ECS was designed to help the clinician keep track of survivorship tasks, and clinical trials are like survivorship but with another level of detail – specific to clinical trials people

Read more

Workflow Analysis – Why do we do it?

The EQUICARE CS installation and support program includes a full analysis of your clinical workflow, conducted to ensure survivorship, navigation, and patient engagement tools  are incorporated into your daily operations effectively.  Finding a workflow that works for your organization important to the success of your  programs; and in fact, we think it’s so important that we employ a full time Workflow Specialist.  Meet Tricia Cox, former Nurse Navigator and ECS user, and current Clinical Workflow Specialist at Equicare.

Every organization is different, so Tricia works with each customer to develop workflow solutions that work for their unique needs.  What does that look like?  Tricia describes the process and how it can help below…

What does a workflow specialist do for customers?

I work with clients to determine what is working and what is not within their current workflow.  Usually that means I find processes that need to be added to benefit patients for navigation and/or survivorship care.  Many facilities are trying to incorporate new standards of care for distress screening or survivorship care, but others are trying to improve current models of care.  The ultimate goal is to improve the patient care process within the facility.

Do you have any examples of how a Workflow analysis helps customers?

Yes, I’ve got lots!

When one site began using the software, the nurse navigator was using check marks on paper to figure out her patient contacts.  She then entered her data into an excel spreadsheet to meet reporting guidelines for her administrative team.  After taking a look at her needs, I showed her how to use the report capabilities within our software and was able to generate excel spreadsheets and reports automatically—freeing her time to see more patients.

Another site self-identified workflow problems and so I went out for a site visit after they had been running for several months.  Upon visiting the facility, we mutually determined some workflow enhancements, like a centrally located print station and the consolidation of efforts between team members.  Often care providers are entrenched in their systems and find it difficult to see the problems, although they know they exist!

When does a workflow analysis usually occur?

I typically get involved with an institution or center once ECS has been purchased and decisions on implementation are being made.  We start this process with something called Kick off, and this is usually when the nuances of the software are presented.  I like to get involved as early as possible to better understand who is involved with patient care, what their roles are and how they currently impact their patients.  We have frequent calls/web interactions as we go over workflow.  I can go on site early in the process if we cannot figure out the workflow process via web calls, otherwise we can wait and have an on site visit closer to going live or after going live.  Ultimately the timing is driven by customer needs.

Why does Equicare feel so strongly about the value of Workflow Analysis?

This analysis makes a BIG difference to customers, usually by identifying ways to save time on administrative tasks, leaving more time to focus on patient care.  Planning  workflow is one of the tasks that may be overlooked by busy organizations, but taking the time to find out the most efficient was of using the software ultimately benefits not just the organization but the patients, by enabling more regular contact and follow up.

And from my perspective – I just love problem solving!  Every site is slightly different and so is their workflow, which is very appealing from a problem solving perspective. Each site uses software features differently and working to see what works best for each site is very gratifying. Ultimately, if we work to improve patient care and patient experience, everyone wins.

Please contact us to learn more about conducting a workflow analysis in your organization.

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