Marin General Hospital Technology Team Wins Frost & Sullivan's CIO Innovator of the Year for CareInSync Innovation

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CareInSync, developer of the Carebook™ evidence-based mobile care coordination platform, proudly congratulates Somayaji Bulusu, M.S., PMP, former CIO of Marin General Hospital (MGH), for receiving Frost & Sullivan's small-to-medium-size enterprise CIO Innovator of the Year award, and Marin General Hospital for winning the CIO Impact Best In Class Award in the Mobility category.  A CareInSync client, Marin General Hospital, the only full-service, 235-bed hospital in Marin County, launched the nation's first-ever Mobile Care Navigation Network™ (MCNN) to virtually connect care teams handling patient transitions across different care settings.  

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Bulusu, currently CIO at Brown & Toland Physicians, received the awards at Frost & Sullivan's CIO Impact Award Gala on Feb. 11.  Mark Zielazinski, current CIO of MGH, accepted the Best in Class Award on behalf of the hospital.  Bulusu dedicated these honors to the team at Marin General Hospital, specifically crediting medical director Susan Cumming, M.D., as the principal supporter of the award-winning Carebook project.  Each nominated project was entered into one of six technology-specific categories, and evaluated by a panel of expert Frost & Sullivan judges.  Winners were carefully picked by the expert panel by screening for teams and individuals that enabled breakthrough new business models and strategies through the innovative use of transformative technologies.

"Lowering readmissions, improving patient care and safety, and raising patient and staff satisfaction are top-of-mind concerns of healthcare executives," said Steve Curd, president and CEO of CareInSync. "We commend Soma, Dr. Cumming and Mark for earning these remarkable awards, validating their vision and commitment to addressing the complex coordination necessary to improve patient care transitions. The results generated by Marin General Hospital within just a few months of deploying their Carebook-based MCNN are remarkable. This recognition attests to the powerful transformation of mobilizing real-time, cross-continuum care coordination."

Dr. Cumming recognized that discharge from inpatient care is a vulnerable time for patients, who face challenges such as managing new medical conditions, integrating new prescriptions into their self-care routine, and pursuing follow-up care and testing.  She and Bulusu used the Carebook evidence-based care coordination platform to create a patient-centered mobile care navigation network (MCNN) connecting multi-disciplinary care teams that include hospital clinicians, aftercare providers and community-based service providers. All connections are in real time and replace antiquated communication methods such as pagers, paper, unsecured email and faxing, increasing patient and staff satisfaction.

Creating the MCNN helped Marin General Hospital achieve its goals of re-engineering the hospital's discharge and aftercare processes to coordinate safe, smooth and timely patient care transitions.   After just eight months in operation, the hospital achieved a compelling 22 percent reduction in 30-day all-cause readmission rates for patients age 65 and older, a half-day reduction in average length of stay, and an 18 percent improvement in care transitions patient experience (HCAHPS). Click here to review the Marin General Hospital case study.

Testament to the effectiveness of the MCNN powered by Carebook is the rapid expansion of the network. Meritage Accountable Care Organization (ACO), an early participant, is now expanding the network to its more than 700 physicians, staff members and partner organizations in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties.

"We're extremely proud of our partnership with Marin General and Dr. Cumming to launch the MCNN and the results yielded to date," said Siva Subramanian, Ph.D., COO and founder of CareInSync. "Earning the Frost & Sullivan awards provides solid validation that what we're doing with Carebook is not only innovative but also about generating genuine, compelling patient care benefits. Communication and care coordination have been one of the weakest links in the healthcare delivery chain. Our goal is to eliminate these challenges and help every one of our customers deliver better care at lower cost."

About CareInSync Corporation
CareInSync offers software solutions that improve communication between disparate healthcare providers via a real-time, mobile, collaboration platform.  As the first and only deployed healthcare mobile solution of its kind, Carebook™ is a secure, HIPAA-compliant, evidence-based, care coordination platform connecting physicians, case managers, nurses and other aftercare professionals in real-time.  CareInSync is helping healthcare organizations across the country decrease readmissions, improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and manage safe and timely patient care transitions.  Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, CareInSync's existing investors include Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, HealthTech Capital, California Health Care Foundation, and Hearst Business Media. For more information please visit: http://careinsync.com.

SOURCE CareInSync