The Sullivan Group & CareLoop Partner to Improve Patient Safety in Post-Discharge Care


We are now able to automate communication with every patient to perform timely and meaningful post-discharge check-ins, reducing the likelihood of adverse events and improving patient safety.

The Sullivan Group Innovation Lab and CareLoop, Inc., announced a new software development that improves patient safety during post-discharge care. SafeDischarge™, co-developed by CareLoop and The Sullivan Group, provides hospitals, health systems and physicians groups with a software solution to avoid adverse events by proactively communicating with patients and flagging those patients that are at increased risk of an adverse outcome.

Over the last decade, various alternative payment models have been proposed to help the U.S. healthcare system move toward value-based care and become more cost effective. In October 2019, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar endorsed an alternative payment model proposed by ACEP called Acute Unscheduled Care Model (AUCM). For organizations considering the adoption of these new models or having issues with adverse events related to discharge, this new platform helps mitigate risk by automating a series of patient safety protocols during the first 72 hours of post-discharge care.

“Most emergency physicians and nurses have probably practiced a call-back program by selecting a few concerning patients to check in,” stated Dan Sullivan, MD, JD, FACEP, President and CEO of The Sullivan Group. “Working with CareLoop, we are now able to automate communication with every patient to perform timely and meaningful post-discharge check-ins, reducing the likelihood of adverse events and improving patient safety.”

SafeDischarge™ draws from over 40 different algorithms developed from The Sullivan Group’s research into adverse events and litigation. Leveraging CareLoop’s mobile platform, patients are prompted to answer a series of questions related to their presenting complaint, condition or procedure. In the event patients are experiencing any of the symptoms in question, the care team is immediately notified and the patient is advised to seek the appropriate care.

While patient safety is paramount during a patient’s time in the acute care environment, it has been very difficult for the care team to stay informed on the patient’s condition after they leave. One well-recognized study by Dr. Alan Forster et al. found that over 19% of patients discharged from a teaching hospital sustained an adverse event within two weeks of leaving the hospital. Of those patients with adverse events, approximately one-third were deemed preventable, and another one-third were found to be more severe than necessary.

“As patient volumes shift toward virtual care over admission, the importance of safely discharging patients and staying connected with those patients post-charge is vitally important,” stated Dr. Foster Goss, an emergency physician, biomedical informaticist, and co-founder of CareLoop. “Safe Discharge™ will drive improved patient outcomes through enhanced communication, care coordination and an exceptional experience.”

About The Sullivan Group Innovation Lab

The Sullivan Group (TSG) has worked with over 1,000 acute care facilities, has been used by 95,000 clinicians, and has an impact on over 20 million patient visits annually. Its RSQ® Solutions platform has been used by some of the nation’s largest hospital systems to successfully reduce adverse outcomes. The TSG Innovation Lab partners with healthcare technology companies to co-develop new software products that lead to making a greater impact on patient safety, patient outcomes and the patient experience.

About CareLoop

CareLoop® is a healthcare communication experience company. CareLoop is reinventing the patient experience by extending the conversation beyond the legacy provider/patient engagement-only channel, empowering patients to loop in their healthcare providers, caregivers and family. This makes CareLoop a first-in-category player in the emerging conversational, omni-channel, always-on, always-connected solution space. CareLoop is building the advanced enterprise solution that enables providers to scale communication with consumer-based networks, stay in the loop throughout the individual’s journey in and out of the healthcare system, and therefore drive better health outcomes and care coordination. As a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, CareLoop scales quickly within identified markets. That scalability is leveraged through a partnership with Redox, an EHR (electronic health record) integration company that has performed thousands of integrations among the largest EHRs (e.g., Epic Systems, Cerner Corp, Athena).

To learn more about how we are transforming healthcare, visit http://www.careloop.co.

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