WiserCare and Respecting Choices Partner to Expand Reach of Advance Care Planning

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WiserCare, the nation's leading enterprise software for preference-aligned care decisions, and Respecting Choices, the country's most established program for Advance Care Planning (ACP) practice and capacity building, announce today a partnership that will expand their efforts to ensure that individuals' preferences and decisions for healthcare are known and honored, reaching broader populations in a sustainable, cost effective way.

In collaborating with WiserCare, Respecting Choices recognized the platform's ability to support ACP conversations at scale. The strategic partnership features the first-ever Respecting Choices-certified digital approach compatible with First Steps^® ACP, which WiserCare will offer to customers through its enterprise suite of online ACP experiences and tools for individuals, families, healthcare agents and care teams.

"Decades of research and experience have shown that document completion alone does not improve people's chances of receiving preference-aligned care or avoiding unwanted care," said Stephanie Anderson, DNP, RN, Executive Director of Respecting Choices. "Conversations to explore preferences, goals and values unlock these benefits. Our customers—hundreds of health systems, organizations and communities—recognize the significant importance of these conversations, but are challenged by lack of resources to meet demand. WiserCare supports the conversation with a scalable, population-level approach. They've helped leading organizations reach thousands more individuals with ACP, while improving the efficiency and quality of—and satisfaction with—the experience. Together we offer a unique solution that covers the full spectrum of capabilities needed to support and scale ACP conversations."

WiserCare's ACP platform includes a suite of online tools and experiences for each stakeholder in the process that can be used in a variety of settings across the individual's adult lifetime. Individuals use WiserCare's online tool to express preferences and goals for care through a patented exercise that automatically populates relevant state- and organization-specific documents. Individuals typically complete this experience in preparation for a conversation with an ACP Facilitator, but can also complete ACP in real-time with a Facilitator, or independently. The platform also includes dedicated experiences and tools for healthcare agents, families and care teams to assist in delivering, documenting and using the information to guide preference-aligned care.

"Respecting Choices pioneered this field, with decades of research and experience-based evidence demonstrating significant positive impacts;  they continue to lead the drive to ensure preferences and goals are understood and respected," said Arul Thangavel, MD, WiserCare's President. "This strategic partnership demonstrates their deep commitment not just to making preference-aligned care the standard, but to delivering it at scale. We built WiserCare with a similar ambition: to make personalized, preference-driven care possible for everyone. Our experience with leading health systems, payers and thousands of patients shows we're accomplishing this, with best-in-class completion and satisfaction rates and validated impacts on cost and quality.  We're excited to be working with Respecting Choices to dramatically enhance and scale the ACP experience.

About Respecting Choices

Respecting Choices has two programs that work together to embed person-centered decision making as a standard: Advance Care Planning (ACP) and Shared Decision Making in Serious Illness (SDMSI).  These programs have been used in over 330 organizations worldwide and validated in 33 research publications, providing a robust foundation of practical experience and proven effectiveness at improving outcomes, satisfaction and cost. Respecting Choices has developed curricula and materials to support ACP conversations at every stage of health, certified thousands of multidisciplinary professionals to facilitate these conversations, and consulted with hundreds of organizations, communities, and states on the development of systems to support ACP.

About WiserCare

WiserCare's patented decision support platform combines patient preferences and goals, key clinical and functional factors, and a proprietary data modeling approach to help individuals, families, agents and care teams make more confident health decisions, from preventive and primary care through specialty and end-of-life care. The company works with leading health systems and insurers to drive preference-aligned care at scale, resulting in greater patient and care team satisfaction, increased revenues per provider, and lower overall medical costs.

SOURCE WiserCare, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.wisercare.com/