Patient engagement that doesn't require manual outreach can promote staff efficiency and could improve clinical outcomes at safety-net organizations nationwide, according to CareMessage, which has announced the initial release of a new mobile messaging tool designed toward those aims.

WHY IT MATTERS

The nonprofit says the integration feature of its Health Equity Engine patient activation platform is meant to target a critical Uniform Data System reporting measure for Federally Qualified Community Centers.

It's also designed to combat the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. FQHC patients are disproportionately affected by diabetes – with 14% diagnosed with the disease, compared to 11.6% of the general population, CareMesage noted. Further, nearly 30% of FQHC patients have uncontrolled diabetes.

Through its Automated Gaps-in-Care Journeys functionality, the platform integrates with electronic health records to automatically identify patients with uncontrolled diabetes and enroll them in messaging programs that can book lab visits, schedule appointments, follow up on referrals, provide access to diabetes-management programs or educate.

The 400 safety-net organizations in 45 states that use the platform – FQHCs, Tribal Health Centers and other community health centers – can leverage mobile messaging technology to fill gaps in care for 10 million underserved patients, the company said.

Patients can receive messages in more than 60 languages through CareMessage’s built-in templates, and outreach messaging can also be customized. 

THE LARGER TREND

Securing resources for patients through text messages is one way to ensure health equity for the underserved, said Dr. Emily C. Webber, chief medical information officer at Indiana University Health – and a 2024 HIMSS Changemaker Award winner – earlier this year.

Despite the need for access, FQHCs and other community health centers can also experience high rates of missed appointments that burden organizations and create unnecessary care delays for patients waiting to be seen.

New York City's Urban Health Plan looked to artificial intelligence technology to address its higher-than-average missed appointment rates and slash its patient no-show rate in three months. Once algorithms analyzed its EHR data, UHP used a combination of interventions, including messaging patients about same-day virtual-rescheduling options, targeted telephone calls and more.

"We had a multifaceted approach to just addressing patient access and engagement overall," Alison Connelly-Flores, UHP's chief medical information officer and member of New York eHealth Collaborative's board of directors, told Healthcare IT News last year.

ON THE RECORD

"This is a major step forward in the technology available to FQHCs for improving clinical outcomes in some of their most high-risk patients," said CareMessage Chief Strategy Officer Cecilia Corral in a statement. "We’re excited that CareMessage is the first to bring this to market and continue to deliver on our mission of improving health equity for five million patients from low socioeconomic backgrounds by 2028."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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