Newport Health, Northwell Health Form Health Connect Technologies to Spur Population Health Efforts

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Newport Health Solutions and Northwell Health today announced that they have jointly formed a new company, Health Connect Technologies, LLC (HCT) to further develop and commercialize its suite of population health and network management products. HCT's expertise will help address the growing needs of healthcare organizations in establishing best practices to improve the management and oversight of population health efforts.

"Given the focus on accountable and value-based care in today's rapidly changing health care environment, we are continually evaluating our strategy and improving our processes to better collaborate with our community-based providers and enhance the quality of care to our patients," said Mark Solazzo, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Northwell Health, formerly the North Shore-LIJ Health System. "Because of the breadth and depth of our rapidly expanding health system, we need to have a holistic view of the entire organization and factor all the dynamics and changes in regulations, culture and technology into supporting our business strategies."

Health Connect is a management solution technological platform that allows for connectivity among physicians, hospitals and other service providers. It gives participating providers the ability to follow a patient's journey, provides a common platform for disparate organizations to monitor referrals and allows for better overall collaboration on patient care. In addition to implementing a solid enterprise solution for hospitals, health systems and payors, Health Connect has been diversifying its businesses lines and product offerings to satisfy the growing needs of management services organizations, medical groups, private practices and, most importantly, patients.

"We have seen tremendous results since piloting Health Connect at Lenox Hill Hospital," said Gus Costalas, the hospital's deputy executive director and chief financial officer of Northwell Health's Western Region. "In just over 18 months, we have successfully closed the loop for thousands of patients, dramatically increasing patient satisfaction. By providing real-time, appropriate follow up care, we have reduced readmissions, increased our ambulatory network size and network utilization. The effort has created multiple downstream revenue opportunities for the hospital. The data and analytic reporting empower us with metrics to manage the growth of our patient population and physician network."

Thomas Thornton, senior vice president and executive director of Northwell Ventures, has been working closely with Newport Health in establishing HCT. "Northwell Health has a long and prestigious history of providing state-of-the-art care and has remained at the forefront of cutting-edge innovation," he said. "Health Connect will leverage the knowledge and intellectual capital we have accumulated in the past several years, enabling us to continually pursue disruptive technologies that will transform the industry."

"We are very excited about this milestone. The partnership will provide significant synergies to take Health Connect to the next level," said Sophia Teng, CEO of Newport Health. "Our approach to innovation is to build a product that truly addresses an unmet need by its target customers, a product that people want to use. Our collaboration with Northwell's clinical and administrative leaders have generated solid proven results that HCT will build upon. It is our intent to use our collective strengths to accelerate the growth of Health Connect in the region and across the nation."

About Newport Health Solutions
A leading information technology and consulting company, Newport Health develops innovative solutions for the health industry by applying technology, new business models and collaborative approaches to address inefficiencies and improve quality of patient care. Newport Health provides connectivity, information platforms and related professional services to hospitals, physicians and managed care organizations. For more information, please visit www.newporthealth.net.

About Northwell Health
Northwell Health (formerly North Shore-LIJ Health System) is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer. With 21 hospitals and nearly 450 outpatient practices, we serve 8 million people in the metro New York area and beyond. Our 61,000 employees work to change health care for the better. We're making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institute. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. And we offer health insurance through CareConnect. For information on our services in more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu.

SOURCE Northwell Health