Sentara Healthcare, an integrated healthcare delivery system in Virginia, is piloting a new feature in Ciox's Patient Request tool that makes it faster and easier for expecting and new mothers to access their health records.
Because data fragmentation makes it difficult for patients to retrieve medical records, the White House issued an Executive Order calling for new methods to automate this process and improve the patient experience.
"Sentara Healthcare prioritizes solutions that most benefit our patients and health plan members in the communities we serve," said Marion Swaim, vice president, health information management, at Sentara, in a statement. "Our partnership with Ciox enables Sentara to improve access to digital information for obstetric patients, which is improving patient care and outcomes. The pilot with Ciox, under a White House executive order, reflects progress in reinventing healthcare for the benefit of patients."
Ciox provides Sentara with technology and services to help retrieve medical records for a number of use cases including closing gaps in care, responding to payment integrity audits, or Medicare risk adjustment. In this enhancement, the Patient Request tool uses a mother's pregnancy due date to calculate healthcare service dates, from prenatal through postpartum care. With one request, a Sentara patient receives a summary delivered securely via e-mail.
Following the pilot launch, the enhancement to the Patient Request tool will be made available to all Ciox customers nationwide. Patient Request has been implemented at over 1,000 healthcare provider sites, used by more than 700,000 patients, and received positive feedback from more than 95 percent of those patients.
"Data fragmentation is a multi-faceted problem with negative impacts that range from poor patient outcomes to poor patient satisfaction," said Pete McCabe, CEO of Datavant, parent company of Ciox, in a statement. "This successful pilot means that new moms have one less thing to worry about. Our company goal is for wider adoption for digital retrieval of records that is simple, easy, and automated. This way all providers have the health information they need and patients can benefit from better care."
