BOSTON (PRWEB)
November 04, 2020
Activate Care®, a provider of integrated health and social care solutions, today announced care coordination progress and success in the state of Oregon across five healthcare and community-focused organizations. Activate Care works with the Oregon Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Needs at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), Curandi and Catholic Community Services, Advanced Health CCO, and Columbia Gorge Health Council and The Next Door, Inc., achieving results in behavioral health, community care coordination, referral management, and overall customer satisfaction. The progress in Oregon points to a promising future to meaningfully impact social determinants of health (SDOH).
“There has arguably never been a more trying time for public health in our country, which also indicates it could be exactly the right time for change to somewhat urgently improve the public health issues around social determinants of health that are crippling our communities,” said Ted Quinn, CEO, Activate Care. “It’s truly an epidemic amidst a pandemic, and we will continue to help organizations nationwide and in Oregon, which is leading the charge towards real change to improve quality of life in their communities.”
The Oregon Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Needs at OHSU is the state’s public health agency for children and youth. The Center uses Activate Care’s all-in-one platform to support care planning teams at public health departments in twelve Oregon counties. The pilot program improves communication and coordination for children who are served by a variety of health, education, and community service providers. Families and care team members are easily able to access care plans, track referrals, and organize meetings. When one child had an unexpected health issue, the child’s mother was able to connect with the care team and get urgently-needed medication and supplies delivered within the hour.
Mike Rohwer is the founder of Curandi, a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to advancing 21st century system science to reduce health care costs. He saw benefits quickly after signing on to take advantage of the referral management platform, a key differentiator for the cloud-based CareHub™ platform. “Curandi was founded on the belief that the change we need begins with true collaboration. Activate Care powers so much of that collaboration to help improve patients’ lives through a shared care plan. Referral management helps us reliably delegate and track responsibility leading to far better outcomes for our community members,” said Rohwer. Curandi’s intervention partners include Catholic Community Services, the backbone agency for the Fostering Hope Initiative, a local collaboration of governmental, private and social service organizations providing integrated healthcare and community support services to strengthen at-risk families.
As a Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) of Oregon, Advanced Health, which serves Coos and Curry Counties, is tasked with coordinating whole person care for members, a network of all types of health care providers (e.g., physical health care, addictions and mental health care and dental care providers) who work together in their local communities to serve people who receive health care coverage under the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid). With a focus on prevention and helping people manage chronic conditions, CCOs help reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and provide support. Advanced Health had relied on disjointed communications to do this and knew it needed a more efficient way to conduct its business and improve patient outcomes. Activate Care’s platform has streamlined the process to address behavioral health and improve care coordination during COVID-19. For example, Advanced Health has seen a reduction in emergency department utilization as the platform allows patients to quickly get in contact with health providers to provide the right medical advice and next steps for treatment.
“When organizations in the community using a new tool agree that it works well and is easy to adopt, it encourages more and more members in the community to learn and use it, ultimately improving more patients and community members’ lives,” said Ross Acker, Director of Care Coordination at Advanced Health. “After our first six months using Activate Care, we see our whole person care improving every day. The analytics make it so much easier than it had been to track progress, communications, and satisfaction.”
Columbia Gorge Health Council, a non-profit organization which partners with PacificSource Community Solutions as the Columbia Gorge Coordinated Care Organization, enlisted Activate Care this year for the Bridges to Health Pathways Program, a cross-sector, collaborative approach to providing community care coordination. A partner in their effort, The Next Door, Inc., a social services non-profit organization that serves seven counties in Oregon and Washington, is participating in efforts to improve community coordination for children and families. Columbia Gorge Health Council Senior Program Manager Suzanne Cross, MPH, CHW, said, “Activate Care provides us an easy to use platform for doing our work, tracking data, using that data for data-driven decision making in our community and for collaborating with our community and healthcare partners on shared clients. The level of collaboration that Activate Care allows for is new for us and so important to our mission to improve access to services and resources by addressing disparities in our systems, and increase collaboration of services in and out of healthcare. In addition, as we become more familiar with using the platform, we are excited to invite clients to communicate alongside us as providers within the platform. That feature will help us address our program goal of empowering community members most in need to improve their overall health and well-being.”
About Activate Care®
Activate Care’s cloud-based CareHub™ platform connects patients, families, care teams, and community partners to address social determinants of health and create better whole person care on the journey to health and wellbeing. With Activate Care, everyone directly involved with a patient’s health can act together to improve health and social outcomes, making healthier lives happen, wherever they are. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Activate Care is privately held and venture-funded by the disruptive innovation investment firm, Rose Park Advisors. The company was named one of BostInno’s “50 on Fire” in fall 2020, which showcases the 50 companies in Boston “with innovative approaches to solving problems and are making the biggest impact.” For more information, visit https://www.activatecare.com.
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