Wisconsin health system ThedaCare has joined in an investment round in Qventus, a company applying artificial intelligence to care operations automation.
ThedaCare’s $3 million investment in Qventus is part of a larger $50 million round led by other investors.
ThedaCare is also applying the technology to drive operational efficiencies in inpatient and perioperative care settings. Through the investment, ThedaCare said it would collaborate with Qventus to develop new solutions and innovations, as well as support Qventus in expanding its technology to additional hospitals and health systems across the United States.
Qventus is an AI-based software-as-a-service solution built for care operations automation. The platform integrates with EHRs and leverages AI, machine learning, and behavioral science to automate operations for inpatient, perioperative, emergency department, and command center functions.
For example, the company said, the inpatient solution automates early discharge planning to create inpatient bed capacity; the command center solution optimizes patient flow and resource utilization enterprise-wide, allowing health systems to intelligently distribute demand, effectively optimize care progression, and strategically manage post-acute placements; and the perioperative solution automates operating room (OR) scheduling processes to improve OR access and grow surgical revenues.
"Care operations automation solutions can help relieve some of the prime operational and financial pressures facing hospitals and health systems,” said Mark Thompson, ThedaCare’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, in a statement. “As ThedaCare continues our commitment to reinventing healthcare, partnerships like this will speed up our vision of becoming a leader in population health, remaining focused on the patient, and empowering each person to live their unique, best life.”
As with many provider organizations, ThedaCare faced operational challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and is seeking new solutions that optimize clinical and operational resources and ease the burden on front-line teams. Qventus software can help ThedaCare by supporting automated discharge planning to get patients home safely, OR scheduling, system-wide patient flow and other operational activities. Qventus will be integrated with ThedaCare’s electronic health records system to drive additional workflow efficiencies, reduce manual processes and deliver patient-level AI predictions to improve clinical decisions.
“ThedaCare’s use of the Qventus platform and solutions can help our organization advance our commitment to putting patients first,” added Thompson. “Care operations automation can help improve care delivery, and ensure our patients can access the right care at the right time.”
Patients can expect to see shorter lead times for surgeries, more timely discharges and improved transparency into their care progression, due to the enhanced automation at ThedaCare, the health system said. Care teams can benefit from less manual work, fewer back-and-forth phone calls, and an improved ability to consistently coordinate safe, on-time discharges.
“This partnership advances ThedaCare’s commitment to becoming a proactive partner in health, and making healthcare easier and more affordable,” said Thompson. “We look forward to working with Qventus to utilize their real-time automation platform and expertise in AI and machine learning. The partnership can help our care teams continue to deliver coordinated care that patients in Northeast and Central Wisconsin deserve.”
