Challenge
The healthcare technology solutions market is saturated with companies vying to stay relevant by delivering game-changing ideas. A leader in diabetes-care solutions had an idea regarding managing diabetes patients in long-term care settings, and they asked Fusion to be the technology partner to bring it to life.
The stakes are high for diabetics in long-term care settings. Any number of seemingly simple-to-avoid missteps may lead to a snowball effect of negative outcomes, ranging from worsened health to patient deaths, not to mention the financial impact on caregivers and facilities.
Identify a common problem for customers
After significant research, our client identified a frequent, expensive, and potentially fatal problem: unreviewed test results. It is common practice for diabetes patients in long-term care facilities to have standing orders for blood glucose monitoring every few hours. But if the physician did not review the results before the next test was conducted, the insurance company often would not reimburse the facility for the cost of the initial test.
And because test results weren’t being reviewed in a timely manner, caregivers often did not intervene as quickly as necessary during diabetic episodes, resulting in adverse outcomes such as amputation, diabetic comas and subsequently higher payments for insurance companies.
Envision a solution to drive customer loyalty
The client wanted to develop a patient-event notification system that would automatically upload the standard diabetes test results and securely send them to the provider. If the provider did not respond within a set amount of time, the system would automatically follow an escalation protocol, sending the results to the next level provider, etc.
The process would continue to escalate until the issue was resolved. If the results revealed a diabetic event that needed immediate attention, the provider would be able to create the necessary care plan to minimize negative outcomes. And if the company could create a notification system that worked specifically with its own diabetes-care tools, it would strengthen customer loyalty to its specific product and brand.
Convert an idea into a technology solution
The challenges of building the technology solution would be compounded by a multitude of security and privacy regulations. The company chose to work with our team because they needed a partner with deep experience in regulated industries, broadly integrated technical proficiency, a clear understanding of security and usability issues, and the ability to meaningfully engage and wrap solutions around business processes.
We would need to navigate complex relationships with patients and providers, ensuring the solution would comply with industry regulations and patient confidentiality standards. Our team was excited to get started.
Solution
Our Fusion team helped the client in the journey to develop, pilot, and grow the diabetic-event notification system: from marketing and trade-show work to a new, high-security data center, custom application, and an exceedingly well-received, web-based caregiver interface.
To implement an event notification system that could securely submit patient information and follow the requested escalation protocols, the company needed to build a new interface. We built a web-based .NET portal that allowed the results to be transferred from this company’s blood glucose meters to the provider for timely review.
Our team remained focused on patient privacy and industry regulations and created a high-security data center to ensure information security throughout the portal.
Usability was another important piece of the solution because when providers can’t or won’t embrace the technology, a great idea isn’t worth much. We implemented features to enable unified messaging to allow providers to receive information in a customized way that was convenient for them.
The pilot program successfully determined that the new event-notification system would substantially assist in improving patient care, patient satisfaction, and quality of life, while increasing reimbursement rates and lowering operating costs for long-term care facilities. The company earned immediate success and brand loyalty due to its absolute focus on the customer.
Outcomes
When a business has a groundbreaking idea, there are many options to bring it to market. This client reduced risk and increased speed to market by partnering with an end-to-end solutions provider rather than assembling and attempting to integrate a team of consultants from different companies.
This company's most significant outcome from a brand perspective was the adoption of their product concept, which led to market success for their other products.
On the human side, the web-based app increased physicians' responsiveness even while on the go at different health care facilities. This reduced the amount of patient alerts and missteps that come with not reading test results in time. All of this improved outcomes for patients, reduced avoidable interventions and complications, and saved lives.
From a financial standpoint, care facilities increased their reimbursements for the costs of tests now that they had a way to ensure doctors would review test results in a timely manner.
