Cloud computing, also called Software as a Service or SaaS, has particular value in the healthcare industry. It is inexpensive, ubiquitous, and secure. All data and applications are stored on secure servers accessible from anywhere there is Internet access.
Healthcare IT is, as usual, lagging behind the rest of the universe. We have taken this technology and applied it to several niches within healthcare. Our particular focus is compliance. There are many sets of rules promulgated by agencies such as Medicare which require all sizes and shapes of healthcare organizations to demonstrate that they are in compliance. These are enforced through unannounced surveys and the consequences for failure are high.
Recently Congress required Medicare to develop a program to decrease fraud and abuse and increase patient safety within the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) industry. Ten agencies were given authority to develop standards and certify that their clients met these standards. A cottage industry developed around helping DMEs prepare for accreditation surveys. This primarily consisted of consultants offering manuals and on-site training.
“History tells us that major new growth markets coalesce when products, processes, and information technologies let less highly paid groups of people do things in more convenient settings.” By Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Bohmer and John Kenagy, Harvard Business Review, September-October 2000
Accreditation Helper developed a model called “Web Tools with a Human Touch” which used cloud computing coupled with a human “Helper” to offer advice and support. Instead of high priced on-site consultants, the helpers work from home and are people who have worked in a DME and been through multiple surveys. In the summer of 2007 the founders secured a leading edge software developer using the latest tools (Ruby on Rails), found a domain expert with both the content and the process needed, and built this new system. Two years later hundreds of users use this on a daily basis and a recent customer satisfaction survey revealed that 98.8% of respondents would recommend, or already have recommended us to another provider.
Several new opportunities have presented themselves to our team. Within the DME industry the focus is shifting to accreditation maintenance and we are in discussions with accrediting agencies concerning them adopting our cloud computing technology to help them manage their clients. Our maintenance program gives each provider a monthly set of tasks to perform to stay in compliance. As they accomplish these tasks, including QI studies, they sign off with a date, time, and person who accomplished the tasks. They are then given a score for that month. If they are at 90 or above they are ready for a successful unannounced survey.
And most interestingly there are new HIPAA requirements that will force hundreds of thousand of healthcare business associates to comply with new regulations. We have recruited the domain expert, started loading the content, made an agreement with a marketing and distribution network, and have built the first version of Compliance Helper.
