Health Gorilla is an online marketplace that connects medical care centers with diagnostic labs and radiology centers. The latest addition to this network is the Mountain View Healthcare Center in Mountain View, Calif. that has operated in the Bay Area for the past 50 years.
Health Gorilla announced this past week that it has added Mountain View to its list of participants and makes note that the skilled nursing facility is the first of its kind to join the network. Mountain View operates a 122-bed facility that houses both Medicare and Medicaid patients, and it will reportedly be using this network to expand its ability to complete diagnostic services that occur as a matter of its normal operations. Steven Yaskin, the CEO of Health Gorilla commented on the newest addition to his company's ranks.
"Our marketplace now enables partners such as Mountain View Healthcare Center to place orders for diagnostic lab and radiology center services electronically," Yaskin said. "Test results can be shared immediately with both Mountain View Healthcare Center and their ambulatory physicians. Results and related communications are delivered directly to physician's desktop computer, iPhone, or iPad mini instead of paper and fax transmission. The physician can also respond with instructions directly to the SNF staff. This eliminates a significant portion of the faxing, phone calls, and delay. Communications are improved substantially."
Mountain View works primarily with patients who need short term rehabilitation. Its staff provides services for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy on a 24-hour basis, and its facility contains a wing for patients with Alzheimer's and dementia. Like many medical care centers, it must conduct medical tests and work with other facilities to complete diagnostic and radiological procedures, and its connection with Health Gorilla should serve to increase its ability to reach out to testing centers with its needs.
The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa. reported this year that switching to electronic health records can improve the quality of patient care. Electronic records allow for quick transmission of information between practitioners and facilities, and according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of office-based physicians who used electronic records increased from 11.8 percent in 2007 to 39.6 percent in 2012. This has reportedly made it easier for doctors and nurses to retrieve various types of patient information and, therefore, reduce the risk of making diagnostic errors.
If that logic holds true for electronic access to laboratories and testing centers, Mountain View may be joining the leagues of medical centers that have further improved their care with electronic record-keeping systems. Health Gorilla says it contains a network of more than 9,000 diagnostic labs and more than 35,000 radiology centers and says members can place orders and get test results completely without paper fax transmissions.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
