As virtual care increases in popularity, a Clearwater, Florida startup is targeting three types of customers: hospitals, health plans and home health organizations.
The startup, Synzi, was formed out of Stratus Video, a language services company. It remained part of that entity for almost two years, but in January of this year, it went out on its own as a separate entity.
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Synzi’s focus is on improving communication throughout the care process. To do so, its platform brings together video, email and secure messaging. This, CEO Lee Horner explained in a recent phone interview, helps healthcare organizations engage patients, improve outreach efforts and keep individuals from being readmitted to the hospital.
Synzi also has the capability to serve limited English proficiency and deaf/hard of hearing populations. Messaging services can be translated into the patient’s preferred language.
The company doesn’t employ or supply any physicians. Instead, its technology enables clients to leverage their own staff more effectively.
Though the startup deals with complex and high-risk patients, Horner noted one of Synzi’s goals is to refrain from making its tools overly complicated.
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“One thing I learned over many years of being in the market is physicians don’t like change,” he said. “When we were developing our technology and platform, we were really focused on keeping it simple.”
The Florida company initially began working in the hospital and health system realm.
“We’ve been very fortunate to work with a number of large health systems and continue to grow our footprint,” Horner said.
But as time has gone by, it’s also started to turn its attention to the health plan and home health markets, where its focus is on sick patients and individuals with multiple chronic diseases.
One such client in the latter category is Trilogy Home Healthcare, an agency headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. The organization wanted a platform that could improve staff and patient communication while also giving patients’ family members a way to be involved in the care journey. Synzi’s platform was or will be deployed at Trilogy in late May or early June, according to a news release.
Moving forward, Horner said his startup’s goals include solving multiple types of use cases and continuing to build solid partnerships with its customers. As part of the bigger picture, Synzi wants to be of assistance as the industry sees more convergence between hospitals, health plans and home health entities.
“We’re in a nice place to deliver a high-quality platform across all three of those markets,” Horner said.
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