TigerConnect Launches TigerTouch Video and Voice Telehealth Features to Help Hospitals Combat COVID-19

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TigerConnect, healthcare's most advanced, reliable and widely adopted care team collaboration solution, today launched TigerTouch to help health systems manage COVID-19 cases. TigerTouch is the first mobile-centric healthcare communication platform that enables doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals to securely communicate with patients via video, voice or text with a single, enterprise-grade app - without forcing the patient to log in to a portal, download an app or create yet another password to manage. TigerTouch is designed to increase access to healthcare and improve outcomes while reducing hospital readmission and enhancing show rates - all critical to defeat COVID-19.

As health systems seek new ways to provide care while reducing the spread of COVID-19, TigerTouch helps healthcare providers communicate directly with patients on their favorite platform: their phone. Less than 20% of patients log into a portal or download an app, compared to the 97% who text. TigerTouch helps healthcare providers improve patient experiences by providing:

• Direct engagement with healthcare providers – Clinicians can conduct 1-on-1 or group conversations via text, voice or video with patients, enhancing remote care while avoiding potential exposure to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases. 
• Communication throughout the patient journey – TigerTouch enables providers to engage patients at each touchpoint during a health event -- from diagnosis to hospitalization to recovery.
• Convenient, HIPAA-compliant communications – Secure, encrypted channels enable staff to securely share protected health information (PHI) to coordinate care quickly, avoiding time-consuming callbacks.

"The potential for TigerTouch to transform the way hospitals communicate with patients is enormous," said Dr. Jonathan Slotkin, Director of Spinal Surgery at Geisinger Health System. "At Geisinger, we've already seen the tremendous value of TigerConnect with improved communication across the entire health system, so bringing patients into these conversations is the next logical step that could greatly improve the quality of the care we provide."

TigerTouch allows providers to control communication by initiating communications with a patient's SMS cell number, solving the phone tag and voicemail problem that has plagued the industry for decades. Care professionals can engage patients via text, all from within the existing TigerConnect app they are already using for their internal communication workflows. TigerTouch also enables care providers to securely exchange photos, videos and file attachments on their smartphones.

"As an accountable care organization, it is our responsibility to find efficiencies in the delivery of care while still ensuring positive outcomes and experiences for patients, which is why we are so interested in TigerTouch." Dr. Savas Petrides, CEO at Innovation Care Partners. "We are always looking for innovative ways to improve communication between doctors and patients, and bringing secure texting into our organization could have an enormous impact on the quality of care we provide."

"Patients today expect a fast and easy direct line of communication with their healthcare provider, yet it's easier to text my pizza delivery guy than to text my doctor," said TigerConnect co-founder and CEO Brad Brooks. "COVID-19 has driven home how important it is to get treatment anywhere remotely to protect both patients and doctors. By relying on a simple, much-beloved text platform, we designed TigerTouch to deliver a powerful telehealth solution at a fraction of the cost of more complicated solutions. This is a vital advance that enables health systems to deepen patient support right when they need it most."

"As patients become more active participants in their own care, the ability to communicate with physicians, nurses, case managers, and home health caregivers as they would a friend is critical in a modern health system," Matthew Fenty, Director of Innovation, Strategic Partnerships, St. Luke's University Health Network.  "We foresee the growth of patient text messaging to help us scale our clinical and support staff to service 10x more patients, and are preparing ourselves operationally to do this."

About TigerConnect, Inc.

TigerConnect is healthcare's most widely adopted communication platform – uniquely modernizing care collaboration among doctors, nurses, care teams, and patients. TigerConnect is the only solution that combines a consumer-like user experience for both clinical and patient communication with serious security, privacy, and clinical workflow requirements that today's healthcare organizations demand. TigerConnect accelerates productivity, reduces costs, and improves patient outcomes.

Trusted by more than 6,000 healthcare organizations, TigerConnect maintains 99.99% verifiable uptime and processes more than 10 million messages each day. To learn more about TigerConnect, visit tigerconnect.com.

SOURCE TigerConnect