New Patient App Raises the Level of Patient Homecare for Graham Healthcare Group

Company Background

As an innovator in an evolving healthcare world, Graham Healthcare Group has been designing business and technology solutions to drive better care, outcomes, and productivity within its own home health and hospice companies for over 20 years.

Graham Healthcare Group offers home health and hospice services in Michigan, Illinois and Pennsylvania under multiple brands including Residential Healthcare Group, Allegheny Health Network Healthcare@Home, and Mary Free Bed at Home. Graham Healthcare Group has successfully integrated their technology solutions across brands and the healthcare continuum.

Challenge

Technology innovation is a core principle for Graham Healthcare Group. In looking for ways to improve patient care and help make their clinicians more efficient, they decided an app could help do this. They were already working on a patient mobile app, called My Care Central, but wanted just as much focus on a clinician app that could streamline care. They brought their requirements to SharpQuest to partner with them to build the clinician app and a platform to support it.

Results

Improved care processes yielding an average 4.9/5 patient rating

Enabled patient care to continue during the pandemic

Increasing revenue with more referrals

We really see the value in what SharpQuest built. It’s ours. And when we’re talking to referral sources or patients and they see the app, they’re really excited about it. It’s really going to have a long-term impact on our business.

Teresa Spencer,VP of Marketing and Innovation, Graham Healthcare Group

What SharpQuest Did

Developed new My Care Central mobile app for patient care

Designed user experiences for patients and family members

Developed secure messaging and video visits

Ensured HIPAA compliance

Migrated the platform to Azure cloud

SharpQuest learned from us, then helped us come up with solutions that really fit the needs of our goals. They really know our business and what we are trying to accomplish.

Solution

SharpQuest started the project with discovery workshops with the Graham staff to bring their vision onto paper. Teresa Spencer, VP of Marketing and Innovation at Graham Healthcare Group has been impressed with how SharpQuest learned their business. “SharpQuest learned from us, then helped us come up with solutions that really fit the needs of our goals. They really know our business and what we are trying to accomplish.”

The SharpQuest team built a patient and caregiver facing app called My Care Central that is available on both iOS and Android. The app allows patients and caregivers to see when clinicians will visit, chat and send pictures securely with the care team, have video visits, review clinician notes and medications, order and track supplies, watch educational videos, and much more.

 

Spencer was impressed with how well SharpQuest designed the user experience for their elderly patients, “SharpQuest really helped us build a user interface that would be patient friendly by building large icons and a unique area that they could go in and see everything right on the homepage for easy navigation.”

SharpQuest also built integrations into EMR systems and supplier systems to make sure all the data is accessible and accurate. The backend system also automated visit reminders for patients, sends a text message post-visit to ask for feedback and accepts text responses.

How Graham Healthcare Rates SharpQuest

Keeping on Schedule

Quality of Service and Deliverables

Outcomes

The response to the app has been overwhelmingly positive. Graham receives an average of 1,500 reviews from patients per month with an overall patient rating of 4.9/5. The comments received have been very encouraging and they share it regularly with their staff for motivation. “It makes the clinicians feel so good when they get a five-star rating, which I see every day,” notes Spencer. “It just lightens everybody up. Everyone gets so excited because that is what the goal is, to always deliver top care.”

Spencer is thrilled with the feedback, “With what SharpQuest built for us, we can easily see what our patients are thinking and feeling about a visit. And that to us is great because we want to intervene if anything didn’t go perfectly.” In fact, Graham was able to drill down into low ratings and found that visit scheduling changes was causing patient dissatisfaction and was able to improve the scheduling process.

My Care Central also became a critical aspect of the business when the pandemic hit. The team quickly prioritized video functionality for virtual visits. Spencer was amazed at what was accomplished, “SharpQuest partnered with us to make sure we could quickly release things for our patients and clinicians that would make their job easier during the pandemic.” SharpQuest built the functionality for secure, HIPAA compliant video visits. “It usually takes six months to a year to build something like this," commented Spencer. "SharpQuest was able to turn it around in two months, which is fantastic.”

Graham Healthcare Group now has a proprietary advantage in the market. Spencer is thrilled, “We really see the value in what SharpQuest built. It’s ours. And when we’re talking to referral sources or patients and they see the app, they’re really excited about it. It’s really going to have a long-term impact on our business.”

 

How Graham Healthcare Group Rates SharpQuest

Keeping Cost Within Estimates and Delivering Value

Willingness to Refer SharpQuest

With what SharpQuest built for us, we can easily see what our patients are thinking and feeling about a visit. And that to us is great because we want to intervene if anything didn’t go perfectly.

Explore the SharpQuest Portfolio

to see the technical details and examples of projects like those done for Graham Healthcare Group.

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