Helping underserved healthcare providers improve patient care and profitability.

CEO
Baha Zeidan
Founded
2008

Problem Tech Solves

There’s a stark digital divide in healthcare. Most electronic health record (EHR) systems are designed with large, well-funded metropolitan health systems in mind. Smaller, rural hospitals struggle to leverage the technology in the same way due to a lack of capital and shortages of clinicians and IT specialists. Larger hospitals are also more likely to have more advanced capabilities within their EHR (55.5% of hospitals with >400 beds) than smaller hospitals (33.7% with <100 beds), even though both are held to the same regulatory requirements. As the industry shifts to value-based care, these capabilities will be critical to protect providers’ revenue from risk under performance-based contracts. Rural hospitals are particularly vulnerable in this transition: at least 25% were on the brink of closing before the pandemic, while higher rates of chronic disease make it difficult to improve performance. Azalea Health revolutionized the traditional EHR to fill the gaps left by legacy EHR solutions and facilitate better outcomes for small and rural providers underserved by the health IT market. The poor user experience of EHRs is historically associated with physician burnout, but it doesn't have to be. Azalea’s interfaces are streamlined to be easy to use, efficient, and customizable, which frees the care team to spend more time with patients. The affordable, cloud-based platform allows smaller providers to achieve the same efficiencies that their urban counterparts have leveraged for years. By consolidating providers’ software on a single clinical, financial, and administrative platform, Azalea increases productivity, business insights, and profitability.

Tech Brief

Azalea Health offers EHR platforms for both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. AzaleaONE™, their completely integrated patient management system, seamlessly syncs patient data between clinics and hospitals, connecting entire health systems with one patient, one record. This means providers of all specialties can collaborate on the same patient’s chart at the same time in the same system. Clinicians gain a comprehensive view into a patient’s care record, reducing duplicate data entry and improving patient management and safety. Azalea’s EHR comes with templates that can be easily customized to fit providers’ workflows, reducing the time spent in the medical record system and in favor of maximizing time spent with patients. The EHR integrates telehealth, practice management and revenue cycle management capabilities in one system, interoperable with the latest FHIR API standard for data sharing and added functionality. Patients can easily interact with providers via the myHealthSpot mobile app, or their patient portal, where they can make requests, send secure messages, pay bills, access their records, view and schedule appointments, and join telehealth sessions in one place.

Tech Differentiators

Azalea’s EHR platform was built on the concept of interoperability via open APIs. Legacy EHR solutions were designed as closed systems, built to force vendor lock-in. Azalea’s EHR platform, however, encourages a free flow of patient data to and from any other provider’s solutions as well as Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) through open APIs, all while preserving security and compliance. Interoperability allows care facilities to avoid vendor lock-in and benefit from freedom of choice in a multi-tool approach. As a fully cloud-based EHR, AzaleaONE™ frees up significant overhead costs associated with managing an on-premises data center, making it a practical choice for cash-strapped rural providers. This means the EHR can be accessed remotely, which opens more opportunities for telehealth and continuity of care, and that it can be automatically updated without the need for an IT consultant to install software updates in person. Another advantage is that Azalea’s telehealth solution is fully integrated with the EHR. This simplifies the process of scheduling appointments, documenting notes, and billing for sessions as all features and functionalities can be accessed from the same application and the same window. It is also more secure, ensuring HIPAA compliance and reducing the number of endpoints that can potentially be compromised.

Validation

Azalea’s platform has helped many providers deliver better care while optimizing their revenue. Within 6 months of implementing Azalea’s revenue cycle management capabilities, Four Corners Primary Care increased their average monthly collections by nearly 19%, or $23,734. They also increased their average per visit reimbursement by $18.57, adding over $420,000 in projected annual revenue. (https://www.azaleahealth.com/case-studies/four-corners-primary-care-centers/). MEBS Counseling saw major success switching to Azalea’s telehealth solution at the start of the pandemic. Within one week of telehealth going live, MEBS increased patient encounters by more than 100. By the third week, more than 700 patient encounters were facilitated through telehealth for psychotherapy alone, with an average of 10-15 visits per provider, per day. That brought MEBS close to its normal volume of patients with telehealth alone. (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/many-children-respond-better-therapists-telehealth-screen-face-face). Dilip Niranjana Jay, IT administration lead at LA Downtown Medical Center, praised Azalea for supporting the hospital’s growth and five-star quality rating."This journey has been supported by the Azalea EHR, which has delivered the scalability and flexibility to support our growth and clinical quality excellence," he said. "This growth has included a 24% increase in revenue, a 25% increase in beds and a 77% increase in patient volumes between October 2019 and October 2020." The EHR's cloud backbone enabled the kind of scalability staff needed to support growth, while also delivering the elasticity required to adjust to changing patient volumes and demands, he added. (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/smaller-hospitals-new-ehr-helps-it-achieve-5-star-cms-rating).

Why Us

The pandemic brought attention to longstanding healthcare disparities in underserved communities. Azalea has stepped up to ensure underserved healthcare providers have the same access to innovative health IT capabilities as their larger and better funded urban counterparts, enabling quality care for the more than 60 million people in rural America.

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