Allscripts to significantly expand FollowMyHealth patient engagement platform portfolio through acquisition of HealthGrid
Allscripts announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire HealthGrid, a mobile enterprise patient engagement platform business. The agreement represents a significant expansion of the Allscripts FollowMyHealth platform portfolio, the company’s patient engagement solution focused on connecting patients with providers. Allscripts expects to close the acquisition in the second quarter of calendar 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the expiration or termination of the waiting period under U.S. antitrust laws.
HealthGrid is a mobile enterprise patient engagement solution that has helped independent providers, hospitals, and health systems to dramatically improve patient interactions and satisfaction. The growing adoption of value-based care combined with the modest level of usage of patient portals across the healthcare industry (as low as 30% in hospital-owned practices, and 10%-15% in physician-owned practices) has made it critical for health IT to bring an enhanced approach to patient-engagement solution design.
Upon closing of the strategic acquisition, Allscripts expects to tightly integrate the HealthGrid capabilities into its FollowMyHealth platform, adding functionality that would enable providers to reach 100% of their patient populations without requiring patients to sign up for a portal. Instead, the new functionality will leverage existing patients’ contact information. By continuing to grow usage of FollowMyHealth and helping connect providers with patients outside the portal as well, Allscripts will help providers greatly increase their outreach to patients and boost patients’ engagement in their own health.
This expected advancement of the FollowMyHealth platform further drives Allscripts strategy to offer comprehensive patient engagement solutions and enable providers to stay connected with their patients in pre-care, point-of-care, and post-care settings, helping care teams to collaborate with patients in real time across the continuum. Driven by a complex rules engine based on clinical protocols, integrated functionality would enable intelligent outreach by providers to connect to patients at the precise, optimal time in the care process, keeping patients engaged, informed and supported throughout their care experience.
Additional, enhanced capabilities Allscripts plans to introduce to FollowMyHealth upon closing of the acquisition include appointment confirmation and waitlist notification functionality, post-discharge surveys, and more robust tools to assist providers in meeting critical regulatory requirements.
