GetWellNetwork Reaches Industry Milestone with More than 100 Patient Pathways

Patent-Pending Technology Enables Hospitals to Directly Engage Patients in their Own Care and Automate Patient Care Delivery

ORLANDO, Fla. – February 27, 2008 – HIMSS Annual Conference, Booth #1920 – GetWellNetwork, Inc., a leading provider of Interactive Patient Care (IPC) solutions, today announced that it has deployed more than 100 Patient Pathways™ at client hospitals across the country.  This important milestone signifies the growing importance for healthcare providers to directly engage patients in their own care while automating aspects of care delivery that are often time-consuming for nurses. 

Patient Pathways are the central aspect of the GetWellNetwork® PatientLife System®, enabling hospitals to automatically customize a patient’s hospital experience based on particular data inputs.  The PatientLife System is designed to empower, engage and prepare patients to be active participants in their own healthcare process.  It is comprised of an interactive application used by patients and their families at the bedside generally through the patient’s television monitor, as well as a Web-based administrative interface for caregivers and administrators. 

“Using Patient Pathways, Saint Joseph East has the advantage of being able to configure the GetWellNetwork system to our care delivery,” said Eric Gilliam, administrator at Saint Joseph East (Ky.).  “The result of automating many aspects of our patient interaction not only improves our ability to offer consistent care throughout the hospital but also improves the patient’s satisfaction because they feel directly connected to the care they are receiving.”

Specifically, by deploying a Patient Pathway, hospitals have the ability to send a variety of coordinated, automated prompts that appear on a patient’s television monitor to proactively invite each patient, at the appropriate time, to learn more about his/her care, condition and safety, as well as other important aspects of the hospital visit – all through the television in the patient’s room.  Many times, the technical trigger for a Patient Pathway to initiate comes as a result of the GetWellNetwork system interface to a clinical information system, therefore requiring no manual intervention by nursing staff. 

“We are humbled to think of the impact that the Patient Pathway technology as a primary feature of the PatientLife System is having on the delivery of healthcare today,” said Michael O’Neil, Jr., founder and CEO of GetWellNetwork, Inc.  “Leveraging Patient Pathway technology to send messages to patient televisions directly engages patients in their own care.  Hospitals are achieving tremendous results, including improved outcomes, high system utilization and increased patient satisfaction.”

Patient Pathways Drive Outcomes
The Patient Pathway technology can be leveraged to address countless daily and often required care delivery components and result in improved outcomes, including:

• St. Joseph’s Hospital East, Lexington, Kentucky deployed the Pneumonia Pathway to improve compliance with the Core Measure that requires administration of antibiotics to pneumonia patients within four hours of admission. The GetWellNetwork system sends an on-screen alert to pneumonia patients asking if they have received their antibiotics. If the patient answers “no,” the charge nurse and unit manager are notified. The compliance rate has increased from an average of 46 percent over the prior 12-month period to a year-to-date average of 93.4 percent. 
• Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax, Virginia is leveraging the Patient Satisfaction Pathway to invite patients on their second day of stay to complete a satisfaction survey. The feedback is used to inform daily service rounding and potential service recovery. The result has been a 40.7% increase in “excellent” ratings from patients who said their nurse was responsive to their needs.

Other Patient Pathways include the ability to automate patient safety and hand hygiene education, smoking cessation education, service recovery and pain management, as well as promote availability of premium entertainment options. 

GetWellNetwork, Inc. is exhibiting the PatientLife System and various Patient Pathways at the HIMSS Annual Conference on February 24-28 at booth #1920. For more information, please visit http://www.getwellnetwork.com/view_eventdetail.asp?id=20.

About GetWellNetwork, Inc.
GetWellNetwork, Inc. is a leading provider of Interactive Patient Care (IPC) solutions. In partnership with more than 50 thought leading hospitals and healthcare systems, the company delivers innovative technology and services to drive optimal patient outcomes. Empowering patients as active participants in the healthcare process, IPC solutions are patient-centric applications delivered at the point-of-care to ensure the completion of service and quality requirements, while driving new revenue opportunities and operational efficiencies for healthcare providers. GetWellNetwork and its clients have been widely acknowledged by the healthcare community. In 2007, the GetWellNetwork solution received the exclusive endorsement of the American Hospital Association (AHA). GetWellNetwork, Inc. headquarters are in Bethesda, Maryland. For more information, please call 877.MEET.GWN or visit www.getwellnetwork.com.

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