The Health Here Story
I had some time to think.
The moment wasn’t intentional or a part of a work-life balance routine. It was actually far less glamorous than that. No, this moment came because I was sitting in my doctor’s waiting room.
I’ve worked in the healthcare industry 20 years, but fortunately I’ve never had to be a patient. And as I was being bounced around between multiple clinics, getting handed those same clipboards with all the same forms I thought, “there has got to be a better way.”
That was the lightbulb moment …
With the recent acquisition of my first company, my plan was actually to take some time away from the grind of building a healthcare startup, but this was one of those moments as an entrepreneur that got my wheels turning again. I like to attack problems that really make me angry. Now, as a patient being juggled between three specialists without any continuity of care and plenty of redundant paperwork, let’s just say I was highly energized.
But true to healthcare form, the challenge of improving the in-clinic experience is considerably more complex than it seems at first blush.
We needed to solve for both the patient and the care team experience simultaneously. We decided to take a platform approach, which would enable us to deeply integrate with EHR/PM on the clinic side while tapping open APIs for medication, benefit and payment information on the patient side.
If we could clean up the paperwork, make processes faster and less redundant, and use APIs to seamlessly integrate data from any open source, both the clinic and the patient would enjoy the benefits. That felt like a solution we could get excited about.
We call it a Clinic Optimization Platform and that’s what we’re building at Health Here. We’re out to improve the relationship between patients and clinics by simplifying the way personal, medication and benefit data is collected and shared across the entire care experience. Our goal is to streamline the key interaction points on the patient journey to save time and to improve data accuracy & integrity across-the-board.
And the good news is it works. From watching those “wow(!)” moments when patients use our products for the first time, to more data-driven KPIs, there’s a lot to be excited about.
Here are a few key areas we’re unlocking:
We’re solving the #1 frustration point for patients — check-in and waiting room time. The first app built on our platform is called Clinic Q — an intuitive and customizable tablet-based kiosk designed to efficiently guide patients through the check-in process. We’re seeing a 50% reduction in check-in times vs. paper.
We’re reducing stress and frustration for the care team by capturing patient information in an integrated platform. Clinic Q helps clinic staff scale by allowing multiple patients check-in simultaneously, leading to higher value person-to-person interactions.. Care team staff report feeling more productive and describe their patient interactions as more positive and valuable.
We’re improving patient outcomes by helping ensure symptom and medication data are collected accurately and efficiently, giving providers confidence and more patient insight for better care.
We’re helping clinics scale their operations by increasing the efficiency of existing care and MA staff. As a result, patients feel their time is respected and satisfaction is high because care team staff can focus on high-value interactions with patients instead of clerical or administrative tasks.
We’re helping clinics grow by increasing the likelihood of patient referrals — the most powerful marketing message for any clinic — by introducing a workflow and experience that 80% of patients prefer over paper.
We believe in big visions; and the idea that our platform will one day empower patients to own, manage and share their health record with any provider they choose with a simple tap or a click is a mission that energizes us every day.
Building this team and this platform has been a great ride so far and it’s just the beginning of the journey.
You can learn more about what we’re building on our website or watch a quick video to see how it works.
Ryan Wells — Founder & CEO, Health Here