Accelerating digital health integration at a leading nonprofit health system

Overview

A leading nonprofit health system in California, dedicated to implementing cutting-edge healthcare solutions through its innovation fund, recognized the growing complexity of managing digital health applications. Faced with increasing demand for streamlined integrations, the health system sought a solution that would enhance efficiency, decrease deployment times, and provide a robust technology infrastructure for future innovations.

The challenge

The health system encountered two significant challenges in maximizing the value of its digital health applications. First, their ad-hoc vendor selection process led to disjointed implementations, where IT was burdened with integrating solutions that may not align with overall business goals. This approach often resulted in lengthy deployment times exceeding six months, prompting the IT team to seek efficiency improvements.

Second, their existing integration platform, which struggled to meet the demands of connecting a growing vendor ecosystem to their EHR. Although the platform initially provided baseline connectivity between systems, leadership concerns arose over escalating costs, limited scalability, and missing support for common clinical workflows. This led the health system to seek a more economical integration solution with comparable or better functionality.

The solution

To advance new care initiatives, the health system needed a more strategic and centralized approach to both vendor selection and EHR integration. One of their top priorities was to accelerate their remote patient monitoring (RPM) and medical home strategy. To do this, they needed a robust, scalable integration platform that offered advanced capabilities at an affordable cost. They wanted to exchange data between various RPM-related products and their Epic EHR through a single VPN and one set of interfaces, rather than setting up multiple VPNs and interfaces across several applications.

The decision to partner with Redox was influenced by a history of successful EHR integrations. Having previously implemented digital health solutions from several Redox customers, the IT team experienced smoother implementations compared to alternative solutions. The health system viewed Redox not just as an integration solution but as a comprehensive “product catalog” for future application needs.

The results

The health system’s first integration project with Redox focused on connecting their Epic system with an external RPM application for prenatal and postpartum care. The integration scope included outbound orders for enrollment, conducted through HL7® over VPN. The workflow involved clinicians placing enrollment orders within Epic, which were then transmitted to the RPM application using Redox’s Orders data model. Simultaneously, discrete patient information from the RPM application was captured using the Flowsheet Data Model. Redox translated and transmitted this information back to the health system’s Epic system in a structured, flowsheet-like format via the inbound ORU HL7 feed.

Following this successful implementation, the health system adopted a “Redox-first” approach, preferring to work with vendors already in the Redox product catalog. This shift reduced the health system’s integration time by 50%, with projects that previously took six months now completed in just three months.

Additionally, Redox’s health data expertise led to tangible cost savings in staffing resources. During the scoping of subsequent integration projects with Redox, the health system’s reliance on third-party vendors for consulting services decreased substantially. In one instance, instead of paying $75,000 in outside service fees, they leveraged Redox expertise, resulting in savings of nearly $60,000 on a single project.

What’s next?

Looking ahead, the health system plans to expand its virtual health and digital care services, including ventures into AI/ML implementations, with Redox as a key partner.