As the current healthcare system stresses a need for greater coordination between care providers, a new social network aims to encourage a greater industry-wide collaboration and already has several hundred home health professionals on board.

Home Health Connected is a social platform that blends networking aspects of LinkedIn and Facebook, all with the focus on fostering better communication across the home health industry.

The free platform allows users to connect with other home health professionals to discuss business challenges and share best practices to enhance the delivery of home health care services.

“Home Health Connected is not just a message board, list-serve or a place to host your resume,” said Co-Founder Paul Lieberman to HHCN. “It is a community where users are highly engaged and generate relevant content for each other.”

Aside from discussion forums, industry professionals can also stay up to date with upcoming conferences and events happening across the country; participate in voting polls; post photos and videos; as well as join various groups with categories that span Home Medical Equipment providers, home health vendors and online marketing, to name a few.

Users can also create profiles for their businesses, which can include general info or an overview of the company’s service offerings, company updates and a map powered by Google that shows where a certain business resides.

Formerly the Vice President of Business Development at American Medical Alert Corp. (AMAC), Lieberman embarked on creating Home Health Connected with Randi Baldwin, former senior vice president at AMAC, after UK-based conglomerate Tunstall Healthcare Group acquired AMAC in 2011.

Becoming, “casualties of the acquisition,” as Lieberman puts it, he began to consider what hig next steps might be.

“We sat in our backyards one day, thinking ‘what are we going to do?’” said Lieberman. “We wanted to get back into the home health industry.”

Taking nine months to launch, Home Health Connected has a user-base hovering around 1800 in just four weeks since the site has gone live. Lieberman hopes reaching out to home health industry trade associations, with membership bases of 4,000-5,000, will play a vital role in boosting the number of site users by year’s end.

“A forum can show associations their value and give them a chance to grow membership,” said Lieberman. “By promoting educational seminars, groups can reach out to thousands of more people that aren’t only in one’s own backyard.”

Along with increasing membership ranks, collaborative industry-wide forums could even lead to revenue boosts and increased competition among home health associations and providers, however, Lieberman urges professionals not to lose sight of what matters most.

“It’s extremely important that by working together, best practices are shared over and over again,” said Lieberman. “Giving patients the best quality care is the main goal.”

Written by Jason Oliva