Collective Medical Launches Nationwide Functionality to Identify Sepsis Survivors in Real-time

Functionality to help providers more quickly and effectively make care decisions for survivors of sepsis; The condition accounts for more than one third of hospital deaths in the United States

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Collective Medical, delivering the leading ADT-based network for real-time care collaboration, today announced a nationwide rollout to help support sepsis survivors. Sepsis is the number one driver of hospital costs in the United States and—according to the CDC—accounts for more than one third of hospital deaths and more than $24 billion in hospital expenses. Sepsis is the most expensive all-payer condition in the United States.

For every facility using Collective’s event notification and care collaboration platform—which includes emergency departments, ambulatory practices, skilled nursing facilities, behavioral health clinics and approximately 1,000 hospitals—at no charge, Collective is rolling out notification functionality that identifies patients with a history of sepsis so that care teams may more quickly intervene to address these patients’ unique needs.

Because of the high mortality and morbidity commonly seen in sepsis survivors—a study published by JAMA found that 42.6 percent of severe sepsis survivors were re-hospitalized within 90 days—it’s critical for care teams to know these patients are at high-risk and in need of special attention. Every facility on the Collective network will be notified on patients with a history of sepsis at admission, discharge or transfer. Care teams with existing relationships with these patients will also receive Flags through the Collective platform, which include explicit and relevant clinical information and best practices.

“We’ve heard from our state, HIE and hospital association partners about the magnitude of sepsis and the absolutely devastating effect it has on both patients and the entire healthcare system,” says Chris Klomp, CEO of Collective Medical. “Together with these partners, we determined that Collective has the resources to do something about this problem immediately and at tremendous scale. And because this is the right thing to do, we’re internalizing the expense of this effort and doing it at no cost to our clients.”

Collective’s platform now connects patient data from all 50 states. Physicians, nurses and care team members benefit from patient insights sourced from every state in the nation. In Oregon, according to a recent report published by the Oregon Health Leadership Council (OHLC), use of the Collective platform contributed to a statewide reduction in potentially avoidable ED visits from patients with patterns of high utilization by 11.2 percent across 2018. During that same time period, co-morbid substance use disorder-related visits fell by four percent and visits within 90 days following development of an initial care guideline fell 31 percent.

“We’ve already seen the value in the Collective platform throughout the state in not only the emergency department, but in ambulatory settings like behavioral health practices and substance use disorder clinics,” says Greg Van Pelt, president of the OHLC. “The ability to leverage information and clinical histories to prevent future events, such as sepsis, is a natural extension of the power of care coordination and a very welcome addition to the utility model we’ve already built in Oregon.”

According to Dr. Amit Shah, chief medical officer at CareOregon, “Sepsis survivors need special care and continued attention because the effects of the disease can continue long after discharge. A next step in the evolution of precision medicine is using Collective notifications to specifically identify and coordinate care for patients who are at high risk for readmissions and/or poor health outcomes. The sepsis notification will help direct the appropriate treatments to these patients and ultimately improve health outcomes.”

Collective is also working with the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA), as well as more than 20 additional hospital associations across the country. MHA is a founding member of the Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium, a partnership of more than 25 state and national health, advocacy, and government organizations convened by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and working to raise public awareness about sepsis and develop protocols for rapid detection and treatment. The consortium’s latest report—issued in April of 2019—includes 17 recommendations that hospitals and emergency departments can undertake to reduce the incidence of sepsis. Adoption and implementation of an evidence-based screening tool that can be used at initial ED evaluation tops the recommendation list.

“Massachusetts hospitals are on the front lines of dealing with sepsis and are committed to improving early diagnosis and treatment of this life-threatening condition, particularly when patients come in to an emergency department,” said Patricia Noga, RN, PhD, FAAN, MHA’s Vice President of Clinical Affairs. “A number of our member facilities are using Collective Medical’s technology, and those providers can now receive notification of patients with a history of sepsis. MHA is pleased to have an additional tool to help address this vital public health concern.”

Learn more about Collective’s impact at www.collectivemedical.com

ABOUT COLLECTIVE MEDICAL

Collective Medical empowers care teams to improve patient outcomes by closing the communication gaps that undermine patient care. With a nationwide network engaged with every national health plan in the country, more than 1,000 hospitals and health systems and tens of thousands of providers, Collective provides the leading real-time care collaboration platform in the country trusted by care teams to identify at-risk and complex patients and facilitate actionable collaboration to make better care decisions and improve outcomes. Based in Salt Lake City, Collective is proven to streamline transitions of care, improve coordination across diverse care teams, and reduce medically unnecessary hospital admissions. Learn more at www.collectivemedical.com.