GetWellNetwork Acquires HealthLoop

GetWellNetwork, a Bethesda, Md.-based company offering a platform for improving patient engagement, has acquired Silicon Valley startup HealthLoop.

The acquisition expands 280-employee GetWellNetwork’s reach into nearly 700 healthcare providers. Mountain View-Calif.-based HealthLoop’s platform enables care teams to engage patients before and after admission through automated, daily check-ins. Customers include Advocate Aurora Health, UCSF Health and LifeBridge

GetWellNetwork said it is combining its nearly two decades of experience implementing patient engagement solutions with 30-employee HealthLoop’s expertise in mobile technologies and digital care management. The move is designed to catalyze growth in the ambulatory space and signals its plans for more investment in cross-continuum tools to connect patients, families and providers.

GetWellNetwork was named one of Healthcare Informatics’ “Up and Comer” companies back in 2014. In an interview then, CEO Michael O’Neil described how the company uses the TV set in a hospital room to enhance patient engagement. To deal with pain management, GetWellNetwork has a workflow called the pain assessment pathway. If a patient is on a morphine pill, the system interrupts the TV show every hour to ask the patient to rate their pain on a scale. "If I report a certain threshold or below, it is simply going to document that in Epic, Cerner or Allscripts," O'Neil said. "If I report a five or above, it will document but also, through a Vocera badge, signal a nurse to go to the room. That is one pathway we help deploy, where pain management is a service or quality metric that a particular organization is trying to move the needle on. We are working with healthcare systems with the courage to take the 'patient-centered mission' off the poster in their office and bring it to the point of care."In a prepared statement about the most recent acquisition, O’Neil said:  “Adding HealthLoop to our portfolio advances our strategy to provide the most comprehensive, end-to-end digital patient and family engagement platform. The changing nature of the how and where care is delivered requires dynamic solutions to meet modern engagement challenges. With HealthLoop as part of the GetWell portfolio, we’re excited to help health care organizations rethink and accelerate their digital strategies.”