Bridge Connector and Skedulo partner to empower home healthcare workers

The partnership will give Skedulo's customers access to EHR systems to better take care of patients

As the nature of work changes, more and more people are becoming part of what is known as the "mobile workforce," meaning that they aren't tied down to one location, or a single desk, to do their jobs. That's becoming especially important in the healthcare space, where more than 12 million people in the U.S. alone are receiving care from 33,000 providers in their own home. 

The problem is that these mobile workers often don't have access to the same type of technology that their more stationary counterparts do. While for many workers this is an obvious inconvenience and a hindrance to their jobs, in the case of healthcare the results can be much more seriously, or even deadly, if they don't have the most up to date technology at their disposal. In addition to the worker suffering, so do their patients. 

That's why, earlier this week, healthcare iPaaS company Bridge Connector and mobile workforce management company Skedulo announced a partnership to bring remote healthcare workers up to speed, giving them access to more technologies, such as electronic health records (EHR), making it easier for them to take care of their patients. 

Founded in 2017, Bridge Connector works with organizations such as nursing homes, post-acute care facilities, addiction treatment and behavioral health facilities, hospitals, MRI and radiology imaging facilities and labs to help them integrate different APIs into their electronic health record (EHR) and and customer relationship management systems (CRMs) systems. 

Skedulo, which was founded in 2013, provides healthcare organizations with a scheduling engine and mobile app that helps simplify complex health care schedules. The company can, for example, match caregivers and patients based on information such as provider qualifications, experience and appointment location. The partnership with Bridge Connector will allow Skedulo’s customers to do things like book patient appointments, develop care plans and access health demographics data, all from a single environment.

For Skedulo, partnering with Bridge Connector provides the company with "more scalable data integrations for our growing roster of healthcare customers," Lisa Giacinti, head of health care strategy and partnerships at Skedulo, told VatorNews.

"Bridge Connector’s innovative, no-code technology, which draws on its library of connectors delivers that for us. It allows Skedulo to provide our customers all of the necessary data more quickly and predictably, so Skedulo can remain focused on its own powerful technology and mobile workforce capabilities. We’re both leveraging our efficiencies to improve care delivery and outcomes," she said.

Access to patient data is an especially big challenge for post-acute and home care providers, who have to do all the same things as other healthcare workers, such as reporting and documentation, while also managing their own travel time and schedules, according to David Wenger, founder and CEO of Bridge Connector.

"Bridge Connector is helping Skedulo and its customers to easily and cost-effectively integrate all relevant patient data in a single view, so that care providers can focus on their patients, not the logistics of managing care schedules and paperwork," he said.

"Not only will our integration solutions help Skedulo provide its customers with a more complete picture of the patients they’re caring for, but from a cost perspective, Skedulo is able to use our network of connectors to offer more predictable pricing and get customers live faster than ever before."

On top of that, it will also help home care workers with mobile workforce optimization, said Giacinti, by giving them necessary information faster and more reliably. 

"Skedulo already had success in healthcare that it was looking to build from, but it knew it would benefit from a partner to own healthcare-specific integration for it. Health data integration has historically been very complicated, cost-prohibitive, and takes too long to execute, not to mention the constant updates that must occur to keep integrations live," she said.

"Bridge Connector’s technology re-thinks all of these issues, getting integrations live faster than ever before, coupled with our full-service and transparent pricing, it was a win-win for an effective partnership that will allow Skedulo to continue its growth in healthcare in a more accelerated and cost-effective way."

Ultimately, creating this type of solution for patients who need rehabilitative care can lead to not only to better health outcomes, but savings as well. In one case, Bridge Connector saw referrals being reduced from four hours to 20 minutes for one of its customers; in another one case, Bridge Connector found a customer who saved $250,000 with decreased readmissions and other efficiencies in just the first three months of integration.

These types of outcomes are especially important when it comes to home healthcare, said Wenger, but are needed across all aspects of the healthcare system. 

"Home healthcare has even more logistical challenges for obvious reasons, which is why Skedulo is such a great solution for care teams whose office is essentially in their cars as they call on patients. Not just limited to home healthcare, but there is a growing need for better managing mobile or remote workforces, as care is increasingly delivered outside the four walls of a traditional hospital setting, thus the rise with urgent care and telehealth options," said Wenger.

"No matter the healthcare industry sub-vertical, the future calls for better-coordinated care. Bridge Connector and Skedulo are each uniquely positioned to achieve different aspects of this, our capabilities made stronger with the partnership."

Skedulo has raised $39 million in venture funding from investors that include Blackbirds Ventures, Costanoa Ventures and M12, while Bridge Connector has raised $25 million from Jeff Vinik and Axioma Ventures. 

(Image source: skedulo.com)