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A Strategic Partnership to Transform Patient Engagement
Two leading hospital industry solutions veterans, Allen Technologies and Strategic Healthcare Connections LLC, announced today a new business partnership to help hospitals improve patient engagement, patient outcomes and operational efficiencies.
The partnership combines Allen’s 40-year track record of innovating interactive patient engagement solutions with Strategic Healthcare Connections’ vast healthcare experience and professional network. Through the Strategic Healthcare Connections partnership, healthcare IT veteran and former iatricSystems™ president Frank Fortner will help drive new business development opportunities and strategic initiatives to enhance Allen’s acute-care hospital market.
Allen Technologies, a Sentrics company, is a leader in transforming the way hospitals engage, educate and empower patients by giving them access to information, education and comfort control from the patient room television, tablet or bedside monitor. Strategic Health Connections brings deep understanding of integrating electronic medical records platforms, like MEDITECH, with Allen’s E3 to maximize hospitals’ investment in technology and efficiently engage patients in their care.
After beginning his career in 1991 with MEDITECH, Fortner joined iatricSystems in 1995 where he created and grew the Software Solutions Division, becoming company president in 2013. He left iatric in 2019 to join forces with long-time colleagues Jack Walker and Dr. Phil Sanger at Strategic Healthcare Connections.
“Having worked with Allen earlier in my career, I have long been a believer in their E3 interactive technology, and the value it is bringing to clinical outcomes and the patient experience,” said Fortner, Strategic Healthcare Connections CEO. “For many years, I have been passionate about patient engagement and I’ve seen far too many hospitals invest in EMR systems, only to never fully experience the power of that investment when integrated with patient-facing technologies such as the smart-room capabilities that Allen’s platform provides. I am excited to introduce my hospital colleagues to what I believe is must-have, game-changing technology for today’s consumer-aware healthcare environment.”
Allen’s E3 Patient Engagement Solutions integrate seamlessly with electronic medical records and hospital platforms including HVAC, housekeeping and food service systems. The EMR-E3 integration enables nursing staff to assign patient education videos directly from the hospital’s EMR. The integration increases nursing workflow efficiency, freeing more time for nursing care at the bedside and leading to improved outcomes and greater patient satisfaction.
Nurses can assign educational videos specific to each patient’s needs in the same system the nurses use throughout their shift. Once the patient watches the videos, that action is documented directly back to the patient’s medical record and nurses are able to reinforce the information face to face at the bedside.”
“By integrating our interactive patient engagement system with the EMR and other existing technology platforms, hospitals achieve greater operational efficiency for their teams and gain improved ROI on their IT investments.,” said Mark Lancaster, executive vice president of Sentrics’ Acute Care Division and general manager of Allen. “We are excited to partner with Frank and the Strategic Healthcare Connections team to help hospitals maximize their EMR investment through an Allen integration.”