Technology
Tech Impact Awards 2013: Health
By Gianni Truzzi September 24, 2013
This article originally appeared in the October 2013 issue of Seattle magazine.
WINNER: Clarity Health Services
Location: Seattle | Employees: 40 | clarityhealth.com
While the overall costs of health care remain a concern, Clarity Health Services works to lower them in one important area. Through its web-based patient referral system, it hopes to eliminate much of the estimated $50 billion spent on avoidable readmission to hospital emergency departments.
Emergency rooms, Clarity CEO Bill Bunker explains, are for stabilizing patients, not curing them. Yet when most patients leave the ER, they dont know what they need to do next. Claritys cloud-based emergency department discharge system brings together what had been separate pieces, to refer patients to physicians for follow-up and ensure that both do so. As Bunker sums it up, Were enabling people to more effectively coordinate care.
Early studies suggest that Claritys approach is working where used, with return visits to those emergency departments down 12 percent. While Clarity currently operates only in Washington and Alaska, Bunker expects to quickly expand the products geographical reach. Among his challenges as the company strives to focus and prioritize will be to manage a strong demanda condition any business would welcome.