Axuall and University Hospitals Pilot Blockchain and Digital Credentials to Streamline and Improve Clinical Workforce Deployment

CLEVELAND, May 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Axuall, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a strategic collaboration and business alliance with University Hospitals to develop and test new mechanisms and workflows to reduce the time it takes to deploy qualified clinical staff and meet growing patient demand. Axuall is a national digital network that enables clinicians, healthcare systems, and primary source institutions to share and manage authenticated credentials in real time, all while meeting regulatory standards.

Axuall and University Hospitals' Ventures group began to work together in 2019 to identify opportunities to leverage blockchain and digital identity to fundamentally improve the way the health system attracts, verifies, and deploys clinical talent. Since then, the organizations successfully completed the first of three phases of their pilot in February of 2020. Subsequent phases will support the full set of NCQA and Joint Commission standards and are expected to be completed by midsummer of 2020. 

As U.S. health systems struggle to meet patient demand, expanding delivery channels, and financial objectives, the efficient deployment of their clinical workforce becomes increasingly critical. 

"Global pandemics, such as COVID-19, only underscore the need for a more elastic workforce and speed to deployment," stated Axuall CEO Charlie Lougheed. "We are at the intersection of new advancements in technology and processes that, if applied correctly, can improve organizations' ability to serve their communities, while at the same time increasing their operating efficiencies."

The process of verifying physician credentials often takes 3-4 months to complete, a manually intensive set of activities that delay care. Blockchain and digital credential technologies provide the ability to cryptographically ensure that verifications originated from authorized sources and have not been tampered with. This enables organizations to confirm facts without expensive and time-consuming manual intervention. It is for this reason that blockchain is being leveraged to improve healthcare administration, including workforce credentialing, revenue cycle optimization, and medical supply chain safety.  

"Any delays in getting clinicians permission to serve our patients put a strain on limited resources, and no more so than when we find ourselves continuously load-balancing in response to COVID-19," stated David Sylvan, President of UH Ventures. "The time and cost to traditionally credential a practitioner wastes resources – it idles the provider; it stalls vital revenue-producing activities and limits throughput. University Hospitals is excited to pilot Axuall's novel and potentially game-changing technology."

During the pilot, the organizations will test and measure compliance, workflow integration, physician adoption, and deployment efficiency gains. Axuall will complete beta testing with University Hospitals and several other health organizations later this year.

About University Hospitals: Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located in Cleveland's University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, a high-volume national referral center for complex cardiovascular procedures; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology, and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation, and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with 28,000 physicians and employees. Advancing the Science of Health and the Art of Compassion is UH's vision for benefiting its patients into the future, and the organization's unwavering mission is To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook@UniversityHospitals, and Twitter@UHhospitals. For more information, visit UHhospitals.org.

About Axuall, Inc.: Formed in 2018, Axuall, Inc. addresses the national imperative to improve access to quality healthcare by helping to eliminate unnecessary inefficiencies in workforce deployment. Axuall is a national digital network that enables clinicians, healthcare systems, and primary source institutions to share and manage authenticated credentials in real time. With this, we empower health systems to accelerate the time-to-deployment of qualified healthcare professionals, while at the same time reducing physician burnout.

Press Contact: 
Heather Kramer, HJK Digital, [email protected]

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SOURCE Axuall, Inc.