NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Safety Net Connect (SNC), a leading provider of innovative healthcare technology solutions, today announced the long-term contract renewal by Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LADHS) for the licensing of SNC’s award-winning solution, the Converge next generation eConsult platform. The contract extension aims to further the partnership with SNC to fuel care coordination and provide faster access to care for Los Angeles county’s underserved population.
“SNC has been an invaluable supporter of LADHS’s mission to provide fully integrated specialty access with care coordination for all of our patients,” said Paul Giboney, director of specialty care at LADHS. “Our team looks forward to continued collaboration for years to come.”
After a successful launch of eConsult in 2011, sponsored by L.A. Care, the nation’s largest public health plan, LADHS licensed SNC’s breakthrough eConsult technology to increase timely access to specialty care services for hundreds of thousands of patients via online physician-to-physician communications or “eConsults.” In the years following, the SNC/LADHS collaboration resulted in an evolution from a basic eConsult model to an enterprise-level, whole-person care coordination platform called Converge.
Across all of SNC’s Converge eConsult implementations nation-wide, most are completed within a day, and over 65% of cases are resolved without the need for a specialist visit, resulting in up to an 89% reduction in wait times for specialty care. Within LADHS, the only way for a physician to make a referral for specialty care for their patients is using SNC’s enterprise wide Converge, an electronic consult, referral and scheduling platform.
The Converge system brings medical, behavioral, and social services together for a holistic, cost-effective approach to patient-centered specialty care. eConsult communications are integrated with an unprecedented set of enterprise-level features, including: administrative tools for eligibility management, billing, documentation, and scheduling; clinical standardization for referrals, decision support, and specialty-specific workflows; and real-time dashboards and specialized reporting. Additionally, Converge has an integrated patient engagement module with mobile text appointment alerts, disease management, scheduling, automated calling and physical mail reminders.
“SNC is tremendously grateful for our partnership with LADHS’s exceptional team of healthcare visionaries,” said Chris Cruttenden, President of SNC. “Our relationship with LADHS physicians, administrators, and executives has helped make Converge 'the next generation eConsult' and the most advanced system in the market today, and our collaboration continues to inform our work with leading healthcare organizations across the nation.”
About Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LADHS) is the second largest municipal health system in the nation. The LADHS mission is to ensure access to high-quality, patient-centered, cost-effective health care to Los Angeles County residents through direct services at DHS facilities and through collaboration with community and university partners. For more information, please visit www.dhs.lacounty.gov.
About Safety Net Connect
Since 2009, Safety Net Connect (SNC) has been a leading creator of healthcare technology that makes it easier for providers and institutions to increase access to care, streamline care coordination, promote evidence-based practices, and improve quality. With a mission to improve health equity, SNC has helped public and private healthcare organizations across the nation successfully reach over 5 million low-income, underserved individuals with affordable, effective patient-centered care. For more information, please visit www.safetynetconnect.com.
