Patient Engagement, Health IT, Hospitals

CommonSpirit Health taps startup to reduce administrative workload

The $29 billion nonprofit health system started using Notable Health’s software to reduce the administrative burden for staff and make its existing systems interoperable.

By Elise Reuter on December 12, 2019

Notable Health’s software helps providers with everything from patient intake to documentation.

 

Chicago-based nonprofit health giant CommonSpirit Health will implement a new software system to reduce administrative burdens for physicians and staff. It will run a pilot using software from Notable Health to help collect patient records and making its existing systems interoperable.

Rich Roth, senior vice president and chief strategic innovation officer of CommonSpirit Health, said the health system picked Notable as a partner for its ability to cover the full spectrum of administrative tasks on one platform. For example, Notable’s software allows patients to schedule appointments online and fill out paperwork ahead of their visit. Physicians can dictate notes through their Apple watch, and patients receive a summary of each visit through the system.

“The industry has developed more individual point solutions today. … We wanted to cover the full spectrum, instead of a separate product for filling out forms and a separate product for registration,” Roth said. “Ultimately, this will allow for more meaningful time with physicians and patients.”

Notable’s system is already live at some of CommonSpirit’s primary care clinics along the Central Coast of California, with plans to expand its footprint by next year.

 

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“TurboTax for patients”

Notable CEO and Co-Founder Pranay Kapadia has a strong background in software. He previously served as head of product for Intuit’s consumer finance software, Mint. Kapadia created Notable in 2017 after talking to his wife, a physician, about the onslaught of paperwork she faced at work.

“She thought it was a disservice to her patients,” he said. “It’s taken away the joy from physicians.”

With six other physicians in his family, Kapadia dug into the issue. Sitting around the dinner table for the holidays, they talked about how they handled administrative tasks.

“They all had different workflows. If they weren’t the ones typing, there was still a massive staff around them helping them do that,” he said

As he dug more into health systems’ administrative backlog, Kapadia realized there were a lot of opportunities for human error. Between five and 25 people are involved with a patient’s chart, and with each step, new problems can be introduced. For example, an expired insurance card might be taken, or labs might be sent to the wrong place.

“It all comes down to poor patient experience,” he said. “The industry knows about the death-by-1000-clicks for physicians. They often forget about the reality for patients. They’re very intertwined.”

Administrative staff also struggle with the paperwork burden. In some cases, they might have to scan a patient’s ID into three different systems that are not interoperable, Kapadia said.

Plenty of other companies are already working on these individual problems, but most of them are point solutions. Tapping into his past experience with Intuit, Kapadia instead sought out to create the equivalent of TurboTax for patients.

Currently, Notable just offers its own solutions, but the company plans to open up its platform to other partners in the future. Kapadia said his solution results in more than 65 percent of patients engaging before they show up for their appointment, and saves medical administrative staff 35 percent of their time on average.

“What’s interesting about Notable is they’re focusing on an area of patient complexity and dissatisfaction that needs better innovation in health care,” Roth said. “These are operational problems and challenges that need to be solved every day. We hope to see more and more innovation arriving.”

 

Photo credit: Courtesy of Notable Health