Watershed Health raises $13.6M to tackle uncoordiated care

The company allows healthcare providers to sync up care using real-time patient information

Uncoordinated care, which occurs when healthcare providers fail to effectively communicate and share vital patient information, leads to disjointed and inefficient treatment and adverse patient outcomes. In fact, ​​recent estimates show uncoordinated care costs the US roughly $340 billion annually in wasted resources, more than the costs associated with heart disease or cancer. 

"Uncoordinated care is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality, and can result in duplication of tests and services, medication errors, delayed or missed diagnoses, patient confusion and frustration, and poor patient outcomes," said Dr. Chip Grant, founder and CEO of real-time care coordination Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform Watershed Health, which announced a $13.6 million funding round.

Through Watershed Health’s platform, healthcare providers get access to real-time information about patients, including health status, social determinants of health, location, and involved care team members. It integrates with existing digital tools, Health Information Exchanges (HIE) and electronic health records (EHRs), and offers a virtual workspace for providers to ask questions and solve patient problems. 

For example, when a patient is discharged from the hospital, all relevant care providers, including primary care, specialists, post-acute care providers like home health agencies, and organizations addressing social determinants of health such as transportation services and meal providers, get real-time alerts and information about the hospitalization from Watershed.

With this data, hospitals can monitor the execution of care plans, and if an action does not proceed as scheduled, they can intervene to realign the efforts. This is especially important for making sure that when care plans change, every member of the care team is notified in real time, so they can maintain a cohesive approach.

"This comprehensive approach to updates supports a well-coordinated effort from the patient’s entire care team, who are now fully informed and ready to support the patient's recovery," said Grant.

Finally, with data flowing back to the hospital via Watershed, the hospital team will be fully informed of the patient’s recent interactions with other healthcare providers in any subsequent visits, including any updates to their care plan. That allows the hospital team to know who is on the care team, and to continue to coordinate effectively with everyone involved. 

"We not only deliver structured and unstructured data directly and timely, but also facilitate seamless communication and collaboration across the entire healthcare ecosystem," Grant explained.

"Consequently, clinical and non-clinical providers can make informed decisions quickly, ensuring well-coordinated, efficient care that leads to improved patient outcomes."

The company’s current customers include four out of six major US health plans, as well as thousands of clinical and non-clinical providers that are delivering care to more than five million patients. These include national health systems and leading post-acute healthcare organizations. 

One customer is Springhill Medical Center in Mobile Alabama, which reported a greater than 50% reduction in all-cause Medicare 30-day readmissions, a more than 10% reduction in length of stay, and a 50% reduction in average time spent per post-acute referral by case manager.

What differentiates Watershed from current solutions in healthcare is that it allows clinical and non-clinical healthcare providers to collaborate within a unified system, while integrating both structured and unstructured data that encompass clinical details and social determinants, Grant explained.

"More than just enabling coordinated care, Watershed actively drives providers towards better care coordination. It does this by offering transparent metrics from real-time monitoring of key performance indicators, encouraging providers and payers to connect with high-quality partners," he said.

"This transparency not only promotes collaboration but also incentivizes providers to improve their coordination efforts or face the possibility of being left out of health networks. As a result, Watershed fosters a culture of quality among provider networks, ensuring that patients receive the highest standard of care."

The company's new funding round was led by First Trust Capital Partners with participation from FCA Venture Partners, Create Health Ventures, Impact Engine, 450 Ventures, LDH Ventures II/Launchpad Digital Health, MassMutual Ventures, Capstar Partners and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments.

The capital will be used to meet demand by payers and providers,  as well as to adding another 10 to 15 employees to its 40-person team, growing out its engineering, development, customer success and sales teams.

"This new funding round is to support the high demand that we are already experiencing for Watershed across the US by some of the largest health plans and providers in the industry. We are excited to take on new payer partners in markets and communities focused on improving healthcare outcomes through improved care coordination," said Grant.

"Our ultimate goal at Watershed is straightforward: to equip every healthcare provider with the information and tools they need, precisely when they need them, to make the best decisions for their patients. For me, success will be achieved when the enormous potential of the U.S. healthcare system is no longer undermined by uncoordinated care, which is currently standard."

(Image source: watershedhealth.com)