SAN DIEGO, Oct. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At their 3rd Annual Client Conference in San Diego, Skylight Healthcare Systems announced the launch of iCarePassport -- a breakthrough patient care and outcomes system for ongoing patient engagement that delivers hospitals the ability to provide personalized communication throughout the continuum of care, from before patients arrive at the hospital and continuing after they've left. iCarePassport includes industry standard outcomes modules that patients can easily complete online which provide healthcare organizations information critical to monitoring and measuring evidence-based quality outcomes.
As the next generation extension of Skylight ACCESS, Skylight's iCarePassport is healthcare's first complete web based solution that provides patients and provider organizations an Interactive Care and Outcomes Network(TM) (ICON). Linking the patient's continuum of care with the hospital stay, iCarePassport is designed to integrate seamlessly with Skylight Healthcare's ACCESS(R) Interactive Patient Care System and the wealth of inpatient services it provides.
This announcement marking the release of Skylight's pioneering set of new products is the result of years of development to support and affirm their strategic vision of "Enhancing the Patient Care Continuum" from pre-admission through post-discharge. The launch of iCarePassport is the result of unprecedented collaboration between Skylight and its customers. For the pilot, Skylight has teamed with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, CA.
"The unique advantage that we get from iCarePassport is its ability to deliver condition-specific and timely information to our patients and their families while providing Hoag with clinically relevant outcomes data," commented Alan Beyer, MD, FACS, Executive Medical Director, Hoag Orthopedic Services. "We felt that if we were going to strive for world class care we were going to have to include things that other people weren't doing like pre-and-post operative patient education throughout the entire cycle of care, in addition to functional outcomes measurements. Quality of care is clearly where we are moving in taking care of the medical conditions we treat."
iCarePassport provides surgeon-prescribed, diagnosis-specific, and personalized content that has flexible data gathering applications for patients and clinicians. These content and capture solutions are available to patients 24x7 prior to their surgery and continues post discharge.
"The continuum of care is the measure of which we will all be held in the coming years and the patient is an integral part of the solution," added David Schofield, President and CEO of Skylight Healthcare Systems. "Ideally, the continuum of care begins when the patient first considers seeking treatment and will extend years after a surgical event. Looking forward, it's going to affect reimbursement for that event and it's going to affect quality measures for that event. Skylight has directed its interactive care and outcomes product network to provide incredible value to patients with personalized health education content prior to admission, during the hospital stay, and continuing long after discharge. These are game-changing products that mark unprecedented innovation in interactive patient care."
The Importance of Functional Outcomes
Looking ahead, the understanding of functional outcomes will become more important because they are more relevant to patients, to payers, and to government agencies. Healthcare organizations have traditionally measured things such as range of motion after a typical orthopedic procedure. Now, surgeons and hospitals are becoming more focused on getting the patient back to work or enjoying the recreational activities they once did. The understanding of functional outcomes can also help patients get more engaged with their plan of care and make a much more informed decision as to whether to have a certain procedure.
iCarePassport effectively captures patient specific functional status data and combines it with clinical information giving clinicians and hospitals a holistic outcomes data analytics engine for various morbidities, person demographics, existing clinical problems and surgical implant or device components. Those types of studies in the past were retrospective and were compiled four to five years after the data was collected. Now, physicians can have that data quickly and take immediate steps to improve the quality of care they provide.
"It was critical for us to have real-life treatment scenarios and patient feedback to guide our product development," said Rick Holbrook, Skylight's Chief Technology Officer. "With our pilot, we are seeing preliminary results with patients having easier access to information, improved patient-physician collaboration, and improved compliance. It's all about creating better customer connections and enhanced loyalty to the health systems that use Skylight ACCESS and iCarePassport."
Since the release of Skylight ACCESS(R) in 2000, Skylight has delivered a series of ongoing critical platform advances to extend the continuum of care for patients and their families. Now, iCarePassport extends the benefits of ACCESS outside the acute care setting and provides significant advances in technology that creates an entirely new experience for the healthcare community at large. Skylight ACCESS is a powerful platform for future Skylight applications designed to eliminate barriers between patients and the healthcare organizations that care for them, which will ultimately drive patient loyalty toward those institutions.
About iCarePassport
iCarePassport is the first complete interactive care and outcomes network that includes a comprehensive array of patient-centered education, hospital information, and other vital facts to help people prepare for their procedure and hospital stay, while also assuring patients' informational needs are met after hospitalization. Utilizing the integrated outcomes measurement tools, hospitals will be able to build a repository of evidence-based outcomes to measure patients' functional status in addition to gaining understanding of the effectiveness of patient-specific education on compliance and clinical outcomes.
iCarePassport ICON is a completely open solution that will integrate any healthcare system and give the patient options for various types of post acute care services. iCarePassport works in conjunction with Skylight's inpatient ACCESS interactive patient system to provide condition specific information to the patient and their care team during their acute care visit. Utilizing knowledge gained from market leadership in the rapidly growing interactive patient care arena, iCarePassport is designed to provide a rewarding and engaging experience for people of all skill levels -- from beginner to advanced computer users. By creating a truly holistic experience for patients and families, iCarePassport motivates people to keep returning to the system and take a more active role in their health.
About Skylight Health Systems
Skylight(R) Healthcare Systems is the industry pioneer and leader in interactive patient care technology. With patient communication as the cornerstone of a safe, comfortable and clinically optimal hospital experience, the Skylight ACCESS(R) Interactive Patient System encourages patient and family to actively participate in their health care, improves communication between staff and patient/family members, and can provide a smoother and faster recovery and discharge plan. Skylight's vision is to provide hospitals with a robust tool which will allow them to greatly enhance interactive communication along the entire patient care continuum from pre-admission through post-discharge. In nearly 15,000 installed locations, leading hospital administrators have confidently selected Skylight Healthcare Systems as the proven choice for their interactive patient care technology. Skylight Healthcare Systems is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information about Skylight Healthcare Systems, please visit: www.Skylight.com.
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