Seattle, WA, April 4, 2018 – SCI Solutions (SCI), a leading patient access and care coordination software company, today announced it has acquired DatStat, a leading provider of patient engagement and digital health tools. The combination of SCI’s market-leading patient scheduling, referral management and revenue cycle software with DatStat’s digital self-service tools for pre-visit preparation, secure messaging, visit summaries and care plans, creates a complete patient access and engagement solution for patients to conveniently connect with their care teams and manage their health.
“In our consumer-driven health model, provider organizations need to fundamentally reimagine ways to deliver online service and convenience expected by consumers who have grown accustomed to digital engagement throughout their daily lives,”said Joel French, CEO of SCI Solutions. “By partnering with DatStat, SCI will eliminate the divide between today’s complex health enterprises and individuals wanting to be personally engaged, understood and involved in their care. These software tools will foster sustainable growth for providers and improve health and satisfaction for participating patients.”
DatStat’s consumer-ready tools function on any device, so patients can securely message providers, easily complete pre-visit forms and surveys online, confirm adherence to care plans and receive important reminders for appointment follow-up. Providers can work more easily with their patients to develop self-care management plans and track adherence to these plans, while monitoring progress for earlier intervention. These capabilities work in conjunction with health system websites and patient portals, marketing automation technologies, and any electronic health record to ensure a unified brand experience. Additionally, DatStat’s patient-centric capabilities extend into the clinical research field by offering a next generation software solution for clinical trial management and electronic data capture. DatStat solutions have been trusted for use by more than one-hundred of America’s foremost care delivery and research institutions, including UCSF Medical Center, University of Washington, Dana Farber Cancer Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
“In partnership with our clients, DatStat has uniquely demonstrated patient self-services adoption levels that result in healthier, better informed and more loyal patients,”said DatStat co-founder and CEO Lizza Miller, PhD. “Linking DatStat’s consumer outreach platform with the national care coordination network of SCI Solutions will bring to market a more meaningful approach for how patients control and manage their health, while enabling providers to use a more modern way to attract and retain patients.”
“With rising consumerism in healthcare, the explosion of high-deductible health plans, and consumers who are increasingly shouldering more of their own costs, health systems must support the new ‘patient payer’ by providing tools that make it easier for consumers to do business with them,”said French. “Poor patient service has driven a material loss in revenue for many providers, not to mention diminished care for patients. We believe the demand for better service and care will continue driving the patient engagement market, which is estimated to be more than $18 billion by 2022. We expect to operate at the forefront of patient access and engagement alongside our new DatStat colleagues.”
In recent years, health systems have taken notice of the shift in consumer attitudes toward care management and the role of technology. A recent report by Kaufman Hall shows that while 58 percent of healthcare leaders indicate that offering digital tools to enable consumer engagement is a high priority, only 14 percent say they have such capabilities in place, fueling the market growth predictions. These same organizations are also recognizing that the technology they currently rely upon, namely hospital-centric EMRs that have been retrofitted with patient portals, are inadequate to accommodate patients who desire more self-management of their care. While EMRs serve an important purpose inside the confines of a health system, patient experiences are substantially influenced by what happens outside the health system. This is a key reason why patient portals, which enable access to software originally designed for enterprise billing and clinical documentation, have not been widely adopted or satisfactory to patients. For its clients, the integration of DatStat’s purpose-built patient engagement platform with a wide variety of purpose-built electronic health record applications has enabled both patients and provider organizations to realize more value than either could independently. With this acquisition, SCI will now serve an ever-growing population of patients who expect highly intuitive digital tools that were purpose-built for how they live, communicate and want to engage with their providers.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The combined company is headquartered in Seattle.