Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 13, 2014

LibertyHealth Says 'Practice Unite' Application Saving It Millions


When it comes to the healthcare community and burgeoning technology there are a number of different ways that can help a company become even more profitable. LibertyHealth Jersey City Medical Center announced it had saved some significant time and costs using the Practice Unite solution. This particular offering is a customized but HIPAA-compliant smartphone application that is made to greatly improve the communication process while also speeding up workflows of most health care facilities.

LibertyHealth announced it first deployed the Practice Unite application about a year ago and it has seen dramatic savings thanks to the application because it has been downloaded by most of the health care facility’s active staff members. Communication is always going to be an issue for a health care organization, no matter the size of the staff. LibertyHealth has more than 300 active staff members, which means there are plenty of chances to have poor communications.

In total, LibertyHealth says it has saved as much as $2 million. Among the ways in which the communications application has helped save the facility money are faster discharge times. Doctors at the unit say they have been able to discharge patients up to 20 percent faster than before using Practice Unite. This has saved LibertyHealth more than $720,000 a year.

The facility said communication response time is six times quicker than in the past. Response times have been reduced from 2-4 hours to something closer to 15-30 minutes. The application allows for mobile communications between doctors, nurses and other staff at the hospital. Referral leakage, meaning that a patient would have to be referred outside the hospital but is now being referred to a physician inside LibertyHealth, is reduced as well. Stopping this kind of referral leakage is saving the hospital as much as $120,000 per active physician.

The best part of all is that the application has seen user high user satisfaction marks.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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