Regard and Penn Highlands Healthcare Expand Partnership to Improve Patient and Physician Outcomes Within Two New Hospitals, ICU and Skilled Nursing Facilities

Health system has already seen a $3 million increase in annual revenue since partnering in 2020

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Regard, a software company developing an artificial intelligence (AI) co-pilot for physicians to help diagnose medical conditions, and Penn Highlands Healthcare, a community health system rooted in excellence in quality, service and outcomes, today announced their expanded partnership to bring Regard's software to physicians in additional hospitals as well as the intensive care units (ICU) and skilled nursing facilities.

Launched in October 2020 as a pilot program, Regard has since penned a multi-year commercial engagement with Penn Highlands Healthcare. Within the last two years, Regard has enabled Penn Highlands Healthcare to

• Increase revenue by $3 million annually
• Reduce physicians' time spent writing notes by up to 30%, enabling them to focus more on patient care
• Reduce physicians' clinical documentation integrity (CDI) queries by 25%, improving their data quality, patient outcomes and claim reimbursements

This expanded partnership comes at a critical time, as burnout continues to impact physicians, becoming significantly prevalent among intensive care physicians. Recent research from the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London revealed physicians need 26.7 hours per day to provide patients with the recommended care, in addition to the time spent completing necessary administrative tasks like updating electronic health records (EHR).

Regard is helping Penn Highlands Healthcare solve these problems by streamlining physicians' clinical workflows and enabling them to easily access a patient's medical background in one, user-friendly interface. Partnered with Epic and Cerner, two of the nation's leading electronic medical record (EMR) providers, Regard's proprietary algorithms aggregate and then mine the entirety of a patient's medical history through their EHR. The aggregated data decreases room for error while optimizing the diagnostic and billing processes, resulting in overall improved quality of care, accurate hospital reimbursements and increased revenue while reducing the time physicians spend on documentation.

"We genuinely believe in the power AI has to increase the efficiency of physicians' workflows and to improve both physician and patient well-being," said Eli Ben-Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Regard. "We're thrilled to see the results Penn Highlands Healthcare physicians have experienced with our technology and look forward to further supporting the organization in growing across more of its hospitals and departments. Ultimately, we think every clinician can benefit from AI to help support their diagnosing and documenting needs."

"Regard is the only software we've seen that not only works in tandem with but also improves workflow for our physicians," said Dr. Russell Cameron, chief medical officer at Penn Highlands Healthcare. "We had strict requirements when it came to choosing a solution that will improve care outcomes without adding significant cost. Regard surpassed our expectations and has even helped improve coding compliance for billing, increasing revenue tremendously."

Since 2020, Regard has successfully launched in 15 hospitals across the country and shown a 56% reduction in measures of burnout amongst physicians. To date, the technology has been used on more than 40,000 patients and has diagnosed over 670,000 medical conditions that otherwise would have been missed by providers.

Regard has a rapidly-growing waitlist of hospital systems eager to get access to its groundbreaking technology. To learn more, visit www.withregard.com.

About Regard

Regard improves healthcare by building AI software that empowers physicians to accurately diagnose patients. Working closely with physicians and health systems, Regard's product analyzes physicians' notes and lab results to ensure no condition is overlooked. The diagnoses, along with supporting documentation and billing information, are written back into the medical record. It is the only product on the market that saves physicians time, improves patient outcomes, and increases hospital revenue through automated diagnosis and documentation. Since launching in Fall 2020, Regard is now live in 15 hospitals and seven states. With dozens of hospitals lined up, Regard is carving a path to bring top-tier medicine to every physician and patient worldwide. For more information, visit www.withregard.com.

About Penn Highlands Healthcare

Penn Highlands Healthcare was officially formed in 2011, and is comprised of eight hospitals – Penn Highlands Brookville, Penn Highlands Clearfield, Penn Highlands Connellsville, Penn Highlands DuBois, Penn Highlands Elk, Penn Highlands Huntingdon, Penn Highlands Mon Valley and Penn Highlands Tyrone -- that have served area communities for the past 100+ years. Its business continuum also includes home care agencies, long-term care facilities and residential senior living communities, as well as durable medical equipment companies and retail pharmacies.

Penn Highlands Healthcare has evolved into an organization with 6,651 workers in 150+ locations throughout 39 counties in Northwestern/Central and Southwestern Pennsylvania that include community medical buildings, outpatient facilities, surgery centers and physician practices. The facilities have a total of 1,498 inpatient, skilled nursing and personal care beds.  The system, which has 827 physicians and 405 advanced practice providers on staff, offers a wide range of care and treatments with specialty units for cancer, cardiovascular/thoracic, neurosurgery, pulmonology, neonatal and high-risk pregnancy patients. Being focused on what is important – patients and families – makes Penn Highlands Healthcare the best choice in the region.

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