A brand new venture from Southeast Pennsylvania well being data alternate HealthShare Change will create a real-time information sharing and notification platform to establish folks 65 and older with pre-diabetes or diabetes and health-related social wants.
The venture, NESSTS (Community for Enhancing Social Service Transitions for Seniors), was created with assist from the Independence Blue Cross Basis’s Institute for Well being Fairness.
NESSTS, which is able to facilitate referrals to social providers and social advantages packages, builds on new capabilities created by PA Navigate, a statewide neighborhood data community designed to deal with well being and social care wants for Pennsylvanians by connecting them to neighborhood providers. PA Navigate is managed by HSX and three different state-certified HIEs and is funded by the PA Division of Human Companies.
By means of this initiative, HSX goals to enhance the well being of seniors with these continual situations by offering them with well timed and coordinated entry to evidence-based providers and advantages.“We’re excited to work with HSX on this necessary initiative to allow options for larger well being fairness and enhance well being outcomes for seniors,” mentioned Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the IBX Basis, in a press release.
Working in collaboration with the IBX Basis Institute for Well being Fairness, HSX will convene a job drive of Philadelphia-area well being facilities, advantages program managers and community-based service suppliers that assist seniors and may establish gaps and options to streamline care coordination.
“Whereas diabetes and pre-diabetes have an effect on folks of all ages, they’re extra prevalent in seniors. Social elements, akin to meals and housing insecurity or transportation entry, contribute to greater illness burden and are extra determinant of well being outcomes than the medical care these people obtain,” mentioned Greg Liptak, vp, high quality enchancment and illness administration at HSX, in a press release. “Our connections to healthcare stakeholders within the larger Philadelphia area and past uniquely place HSX to determine this program, collaborate with our native companions and assist drive higher well being outcomes and well being fairness for the neighborhood that HSX serves. We’re grateful to the IBX Basis Institute for Well being Fairness for his or her assist of this initiative.”
PA Navigate is a collaborative effort amongst well being data organizations (HIOs) and brings collectively a number of state businesses, counties, native nonprofits and neighborhood organizations, healthcare entities, and social providers suppliers. HIOs collaborating within the venture embody ClinicalConnect HIE, Central PA Join HIE, HealthShare Change, and the Keystone HIE.
In September 2023, Austin, Texas-based findhelp was chosen because the PA Navigate platform. Present findhelp prospects in Pennsylvania embody Penn Drugs, Geisinger, Lehigh Valley Well being Community, AmeriHealth Caritas, PA Well being and Wellness, and Highmark Well being.
By means of a shared platform, healthcare suppliers and social providers organizations can monitor consumer referrals and higher perceive and help with a consumer’s particular person wants, serving to them entry providers and helps. The system may even permit healthcare and repair suppliers to evaluate a person’s wants throughout a doctor’s workplace or emergency division go to, when receiving case administration providers, or looking for help from a community-based group.
The instrument additionally will collect information that may assist the Commonwealth and its companions higher perceive well being and social providers wants of Pennsylvanians and establish service gaps or alternatives for higher assist throughout the state. By crucial social determinants of well being, together with employment, youngster care, transportation, meals safety, entry to healthcare, and housing stability, Commonwealth businesses and companions on the county and native stage might help Pennsylvanians obtain higher long-term well being outcomes.
