Health IT

Health IT firm with patient navigation platform raises $5M for product development

A healthcare IT company with a system to help patients navigate their way through each phase of a hospital stay has raised $5 million in a series D round. Skylight Healthcare Systems will use the funding from Duchossois Capital Partners, an affiliate of The Duchossois Group in Elmhurst, Illinois,to help market its patient navigation system, […]

A healthcare IT company with a system to help patients navigate their way through each phase of a hospital stay has raised $5 million in a series D round.

Skylight Healthcare Systems will use the funding from Duchossois Capital Partners, an affiliate of The Duchossois Group in Elmhurst, Illinois,to help market its patient navigation system, CareNavigator and develop a new generation of the product, according to a company statement.

CareNavigator is intended to facilitate three stages of the hospital experience to help healthcare professionals make better use of their time.

The pre-admission stage provides things like registration forms that patients can fill out from home, directions to the hospital and educational videos on the planned treatment or surgical procedure. Once the patient is admitted, the system helps direct their non-clinical requests such as room service or a request for a chaplain’s visit. The discharge section includes medication scheduling, follow up appointments, diet and exercise videos and driving directions to physicians, care providers and the hospital. made the $5 million investment to accelerate growth in product development, marketing, and sales of the patient navigation software.

When the San Diego, California company got its start in 1999, it provided entertainment for patients, with a device that allowed them to order movies for their rooms. It has since advanced that concept to include the intimate environment of a hyperbaric chamber — used by hospitals to help with wound healing, among other things.

Providers have been working to improve the patient experience. The idea is by improving patient engagement it can help improve adherence and reduce the likelihood that patients will need to be readmitted within a month of being discharged. Healthcare reform provisions will reduce Medicare reimbursements for providers with readmission rates that surpass the national average.