Among the Largest Community Health Clinics in US Deploys Innovative Platform for Patient Care Coordination, Engagement and Care Team Communication
Kansas City, Kansas - Cranbury, New Jersey (PRWEB) September 20, 2016 -- The Kansas City CARE Clinic, one of the largest community health clinics in the country, recently announced the upcoming launch of the Care Navigator™ care coordination and patient engagement platform in support of its Community Health Worker (CHW) program. The award-winning Care Navigator™ platform will support the Kansas City CARE Clinic with care coordination, patient engagement and care team communication as part of KC CARE’s commitment to providing quality care, access, research and education to Kansas City patients, with or without health insurance.
“Since 1971, the Kansas City CARE Clinic has been advocating for and meeting the needs of vulnerable populations. In this modern day of healthcare reform, we are bringing the Care Navigator™ platform as cutting-edge technology to equip our Community Health Workers as they coordinate care in the field and add significant value to the provider-patient relationship,” said Sheridan Y. Wood, Chief Executive Officer, Kansas City CARE Clinic.
The Pew Charitable Trusts recently noted the growth in the number of Community Health Workers in the United States to 48,000 in 2015, up 27% from three years earlier, citing the US Department of Labor. Growth is based on the impact of the Affordable Care Act and research studies reporting on the overall positive outcomes of using Community Health Workers (CHWs) as a successful intervention for better health and quality of care at lower costs. CHWs are especially helpful for populations facing adherence challenges, chronic illnesses, and social determinants that increase the risk for gaps in preventive and medical care.
Dennis Dunmyer, Vice President of Behavioral Health and Community Programs explained, “With over 20 KC CARE Community Health Workers, our program will utilize the Care Navigator™ platform to enhance multi-disciplinary care team communication, engage family caregivers as well as patients, streamline care coordination tasks and tap into mobile technology that our patients use every day.”
Vikas Khosla, Chief Executive Officer of Care Navigator Inc. and its parent company, BluePrint Healthcare IT, said “We’ve been working in the Kansas City area for years, supporting the implementation of regional care coordination strategies. Now, we’re very excited to bring our award-winning Care Navigator™ platform to one of the largest community health care clinics in the country. By embracing the value of social determinants of health-- literacy, access to transportation and nutrition--the Kansas City CARE Clinic continues to put itself on the front edge of community care, helping better manage chronic illness and prevent disease for over 40 years. We look forward to helping their stellar program scale to the next level.”
Care Navigator™ provides the Kansas City CARES Clinic’s Community Health Workers the ability to maximize care coordination and improve healthcare access and outcomes while saving cost and increasing care efficiency.
The Care Navigator™ content includes a menu of customizable care plans and assessments that can be utilized in the office and in the field. Care coordination tasks will be streamlined through workflow design, giving CHWs the ability to complete tasks, act on critical care milestones, as well as activate notification and alerting features and escalation scenarios, when needed. The care team directory will offer easy access to member, care team, and provider information, as well as critical contact data for community services.
# # #
About the Kansas City CARE Clinic:
The Kansas City CARE Clinic (formerly the KC Free Health Clinic) is one of the oldest and largest charitable care clinics in the nation. Founded in 1971, the Clinic provides Care, Access, Research & Education for the underserved and all in the Kansas City community. The Kansas City CARE Clinic’s clinical services include adult general primary care, HIV primary care, pediatric care, oral healthcare, and behavioral health and prevention services. With a staff of more than 125 and more than 900 dedicated volunteers, the Clinic provides healthcare, education, and support for more than 9,000 individuals with nearly 18,000 clinical patient appointments and more than 45,000 case management, education & prevention and testing encounters. The mission of the Kansas City CARE Clinic is to promote health and wellness by providing quality care, access, research and education to the underserved and all people in our community.
For more information about the Clinic, visit http://www.kccareclinic.org
About BluePrint Healthcare IT and Care Navigator™
Care Navigator Inc. was launched by BluePrint Healthcare IT, a healthcare transformation and information security company, to focus specifically on providing the leading shared care coordination and care management platform for its customers. In the summer of 2014, BluePrint Healthcare IT released the first version of Care Navigator™. This innovative and award-winning software is focused on managing the shared care of patients, especially those implementing new value-based payment models of Accountable Care Organizations, DSRIP and medical home as well as health systems, health plans, providers and regional health initiatives in pursuit of the Triple Aim. A 2015 Microsoft Health Innovation Award winner within patient engagement, Care Navigator™ enables real-time, team-based care coordination, communication and collaboration across all channels – desktop and mobile – from inside the healthcare organization and across the community.
For more information, visit our website at http://www.mycarenav.com or follow us on Twitter at @mycarenav.
Mike Squires, Care Navigator Inc., http://www.mycarenav.com, +1 908.391.6191, [email protected]
Share this article