Healthcare costs and the factors that determine why medical procedures can differ substantially from several institutions in one region are the kind of medical mysteries that many entrepreneur sleuths in healthcare are trying to solve. Intermountain Healthcare has teamed up with healthcare business growth firm Oxeon Holdings to launch health IT startup Empiric Health to help other institutions better understand these cost variations with a goal of improving healthcare costs and creating quality improvements.
Empiric Health’s initial product is based on Intermountain’s ProComp program, according to a news release from Intermountain. Clinicians built this program to help understand how differences in the way surgical procedures are performed – from supply utilization to staffing – impact patient outcomes and overall cost of care.
Intermountain claims that the ProComp program created operational efficiencies that saved $90 million by reducing supply costs and shortening hospital stays.
“The collaboration between Intermountain Healthcare and Empiric Health will help caregivers improve patient outcomes and lower costs,” said Dr. Marc Harrison, Intermountain Healthcare CEO. “Through Empiric Health, we will share our proven methodology for delivering better care—along with significant ROI and bottom-line impact—with other health systems.”
Loma Linda University Health is serving as Empiric Health’s anchor customer.
He noted that the company would help Intermountain share its methodology for improving healthcare delivery and impacting health systems’ bottom lines.
Among the health IT companies that seek to help institutions reduce healthcare costs and improve efficiency as part of their remit include Accolade, Procured Health, and NextHealth Technologies.
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