John Damgaard

MatrixCare has launched a cloud-based EMR aggregation and care coordination system spanning the healthcare continuum in partnership with Microsoft.

CareCommunity has been in the works for three years and is the first solution of its kind, MatrixCare CEO John Damgaard said.

“It’s the solution the industry has been begging for in terms of longitudinal care management across the spectrum,” he said. “Everyone has talked about it for a long time but no one has done it.”

The CareCommunity LTPAC Population Care Management and Care Coordination platform will live on the hyper-scale cloud-computinng platform of Microsoft Azure.

Interoperability has been a buzzword for the past few years, with long-term care providers struggling with a variety of technology and data sets that don’t speak to each other. The product allows both MatrixCare and non-MatrixCare data from any ONC-compliant EMR or Medicare Blue Button Data set to become aggregated, as well as input information from telehealth devices, Damgaard said. This could include FitBits or glucometers.

There is a family platform that allows residents’ loved ones to see aspects such as activity or medication management, plus what Damgaard describes as “Industrial-strength Facebook for healthcare providers.” This means tertiary providers, such as therapists or nutritionists, can be looped in.

The goal is to reduce negative outcomes and rehospitalizations. For example, Damgaard said, take a congestive heart failure patient who has been discharged home.

“When John steps on his wireless scale, he weighs 22 pounds more than yesterday,” Damgaard said, indicating a rapid fluid retention. “We need to intervene before he gets in the ambulance and blows up the outcomes.” 

While the system will help residents, it also allows providers to avoid adverse events.

“You can quantify that 10 ways to Sunday. It scales up on a per-managed-life basis,” Damgaard said.

Pilots are running, with a goal for CareCommunity to be available widely by April 1.