eHealth Solutions Challenge
What is the eHealth Solutions Challenge?
The eHealth Solutions Challenge (eHSC), developed by the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance (CSCA) in collaboration with the Colorado Office of eHealth Innovation (OeHI), provides a vendor and proposal vetting process that helps Colorado based healthcare organizations, included but not limited to hospitals, clinics, and local public health agencies, source new technology solutions and provides seed funding to demonstrate them.
The Challenge connects participating healthcare entities with valuable new technology tools and provides at least $75,000 in seed funding (from $25,000 – $35,000 per project, at least 2 projects) needed to test out the most promising solutions.
The Challenge statement was developed in collaboration with The Colorado Office of eHealth Innovation, and is intended to source innovative solutions that are in alignment with OeHI’s Health IT Roadmap Goals.
Purpose
The purpose of this initiative is to identify and test affordable technology solutions that strengthen referral management for healthcare organizations, so that more Coloradans can receive coordinated, timely care close to home.
Challenge Statement and Solution Context
Challenge Statement: How can referral management become more efficient, effective, and proactive for healthcare organizations to keep patient care local when possible, yet still affordable for small rural healthcare organizations?
Context: Healthcare organizations consistently report struggling with referral management. For many organizations, referrals are made and the referring organization never finds out if the patient received services or even if the referral was received and processed. Referrals are largely handled through phone calls, emails, and faxes, and opportunities to recapture patient care for patients who have been referred out is not possible. Patients are also left in the dark in terms of if a referral was processed or they can expect to be scheduled. This is an especially pervasive issue for rural providers, who can sometimes lose patients to healthcare organizations in metro areas.
Desired Outcome: Referrals stay local without limiting patient choice. Cross-referral coordination and management becomes traceable and measureable, enabling more timely and accurate referrals, a better patient experience, and time saved across the ecosystem.
