St. Luke's Reduces Discharge Delays with Parachute Health DME ePrescribing

BETHLEHEM, Pa. and PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Exciting discharge improvement data following the St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) transition to ePrescribing medical equipment and supplies on the Parachute Platform shows a clear benefit for patients and overextended providers.

Modernizing DME ordering

In 2021, SLUHN completed electronic health record (EHR) integration of Parachute Health's ePrescribing platform for DME and supplies. The integration across multiple EHRs covered 184 locations and 12 acute care hospitals in 3 months, including clinician training.

Now, SLUHN reports significant improvements in discharge workflows on the Parachute Platform, which replaced time-consuming and error-prone order faxing.

1. Case managers quickly generate order-specific paperwork (prescription, face-to-face notes, medical necessity forms), and eliminate delays due to missing clinical information, re-faxing and phone follow-ups.
2. Proactive insurance validation and order status visibility allow end-to-end order transparency at the point of care. Suppliers quickly fill qualified orders and care teams rest assured that patients have all they need for safe, timely discharges.
3. Signature time, a critical bottleneck for busy care teams, dropped 99% to an average of 3.1 minutes on the Parachute Platform, avoiding day-long delays due to secure, flexible eSigning workflows clinicians love.

"Sometimes patients were discharged with equipment without insurance verification, so SLUHN had to absorb costs," according to Broc Pollinger, Manager of Patient Support Services at St. Luke's. "There are no missed signatures now and insurance is confirmed before DME goes out. The case management team doesn't have to think a day ahead!"

Pollinger hopes to see more health plans and "payviders" work directly with Parachute Health: "This is a key opportunity for health plans to be drivers of positive change while optimizing their business value and patient outcomes."

Improved turnover

As one example, SLUHN reduced discharge delays during COVID. Ready-for-discharge patients started recovery in the comfort of home sooner with loaned portable O2 concentrators when case managers saw in the Parachute Platform that same-day home O2 setup wasn't possible. Patients wouldn't stay overnight awaiting O2 coordination and delivery.

Optimizing patient care

"At St. Luke's, the paperwork associated with qualifying an order was a massive barrier for getting patients the timely DME they needed," Dustin Eubanks, SVP of Partnerships at Parachute Health, noted about St. Luke's switch to ePrescribing. "Parachute Health is committed to making sure patients reliably receive the lifesaving products they need to quickly get discharged to their homes, and we are proud to count St. Luke's among our many success stories."

About St. Luke's University Health Network

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network is a fully integrated, non-profit network of more than 18,000 employees providing services at 14 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.2 billion, the Network's service area includes 11 counties in two states. St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania, operating the region's first and only four-year medical school campus.

About Parachute Health

Parachute Health has been revolutionizing healthcare through seamless ePrescribing of DME and supplies since 2016. Parachute Health partners with stakeholders across clinical, supply, and payer ecosystems to get patients needed DME quickly and reliably. Over 800 US hospitals use Parachute Health's delightfully simple digital ordering, with fast, even same-day delivery from among more than 2,300 supplier locations in the Parachute Network across all 50 states.

Contacts:
Brandon Zaharoff – [email protected]
Irene Kaganman - [email protected]
Phone: (802) 744-0878

SOURCE Parachute Health