Industry Insight

Partnership Digs Into New York Patient Data

Clinithink and Healthix—the largest public health information exchange (HIE) in the United States—are partnering on a program designed to leverage Healthix clinical data to facilitate assessment of pretrial feasibility, ensuring the validity of protocol design. The effectiveness of the collaboration will improve population health in New York City and Long Island by eventually making cutting-edge treatments available to patients.

With health data of more than 17 million individuals, Healthix spans a comprehensive range of organizations, from large hospital systems and health plans to small community health centers and physician practices. More than 1,000 organizations across more than 7,000 facilities are connected through Healthix, contributing a rich clinical data set that is updated with each patient encounter. Clinithink’s artificial intelligence and clinical natural language processing (AI/CNLP) platform will run queries on this HIE data to generate insights that can be used to improve patient well-being, both now and in the future.

“We are constantly looking for ways to deliver enhanced value to our patients and health care community. Our partnership with Clinithink uniquely positions us to support an important industry need by driving innovation and supporting efficiencies in the design and implementation of clinical trials—all while remaining compliant with New York’s privacy policy guidelines,” says Todd M. Rogow, president and CEO of Healthix.

While some health systems have already experienced moderate success in achieving these insights, the key difference for Healthix is that they connect multiple health systems in various settings, making them a valuable partner.

Clinithink CEO Chris Tackaberry says, “We are delighted to be partnering with Healthix to unlock the clinical data for such a diverse urban population with challenging health care needs. We are confident our tools can help improve clinical outcomes, as well as promote efficiency and reduce the health care costs associated with clinical trials and treatment protocols.”

Glenn Keet, general manager of health care solutions for Clinithink, adds, “We are incredibly excited that Healthix is becoming our latest AI/CNLP partner. Their large and growing HIE catchment area is projected to serve 20 million people before long, and the insights we can facilitate will therefore be even more impactful to the health and well-being of patients. Additionally, the expert technical staff at Healthix have expedited implementation and made access to clinical narrative simple and straightforward. We look forward to this being the blueprint for our future HIE partners.”

— Source: Clinithink

Providence St. Joseph Health Acquires Bluetree Epic Consulting

Providence St. Joseph Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, recently announced that it will acquire Bluetree, an Epic consulting and strategy company that helps health care providers maximize their use of technology.

As one of the largest Epic customers in the world, Providence St. Joseph Health has extensive experience maximizing Epic, both within its own seven-state system and for other independent hospitals and medical groups. By acquiring Bluetree, Providence St. Joseph Health will expand its current offerings to increase the value it delivers to other health systems across the country. The acquisition is part of a strategy to diversify revenue to support patient care and the mission of Providence St. Joseph Health.

With the addition of Bluetree, Providence St. Joseph Health now has two of the top EHR solutions companies in the country. It also owns Engage, which has grown to become one of the largest MEDITECH solution companies in the United States.

“Bluetree is on a trajectory for continued growth and success, and we look forward to partnering with them on this journey,” says Mike Butler, president of strategy and operations for Providence St. Joseph Health.

Founded in 2012 by former Epic leaders, Bluetree has more than 140 health system clients nationwide. In joining Providence St. Joseph Health, Bluetree will extend its customer reach and pursue additional growth and innovation opportunities. Bluetree was also recently named one of the fastest-growing private companies in America and awarded one of the Best Workplaces by Inc. Magazine.

“By joining Providence St. Joseph Health, Bluetree will be able to help even more health care organizations maximize the power of technology,” says Jeremy Schwach, CEO of Bluetree. “Bluetree has always focused on helping health care organizations better care for their patients. By tapping into the Providence St. Joseph Health platform and their thousands of dedicated and talented providers, we will be able to increase the speed by which we bring new innovations to our clients.”

— Source: Bluetree Network

Keith Olenik Joins Pivot Point Consulting’s Advisory Team

Pivot Point Consulting is excited to announce the addition of Keith Olenik as Vice President, Revenue Cycle Services—which includes revenue cycle advisory services and talent solutions, as well HIM, coding, and clinical documentation improvement. Olenik brings more than three decades of experience working with provider health care delivery systems as a member of senior management and as a consultant. He specializes in practical solutions to streamline business operations, evaluate and implement IT applications, and enhance health care operations through process improvement.

Pivot Point Consulting has been providing health care solutions for organizations’ EHR implementation, support, upgrade, and long-term training programs for more than eight years with experts who can step in at any stage to help drive user engagement, improve workflow, and fulfill business goals through advisory, optimization, implementation, and managed services.

Olenik will join Pivot Point Consulting’s national Advisory Services team to drive strategy, implementation excellence, and business development for revenue cycle management.

“Revenue cycle management is one of the most critical aspects of health care management today given the transition to value-based care and other alternate payment models. Keith’s deep technical and operational experience in revenue cycle and health information optimization solutions accelerates implementation to value to enhance financial health,” says Rachel Marano, managing partner and cofounder.

— Source: Pivot Point Consulting