Bayada Bets on Startup with $4 Million in Backing

A Chicago-based technology company has raised $4 million from well-known investors, and is gearing up to bring innovative solutions to major home health care providers.

PreparedHealth, a tech startup that aims to bridge health care providers and services to better serve patients at home, has left its “boot-strapping phase” after securing the $4 million funding from investors in the Chicago area, including Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Beverly Capital and Meridian Street Capital.

One of the nation’s largest home health care providers, New Jersey-based Bayada Home Health Care, has already completed a successful pilot with PreparedHealth and is working on rolling out the platform to all its 300 locations.

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“We felt there was a huge opportunity to tap into the post-acute ecosystem that was under-represented and get people connected,” PreparedHealth CEO Ashish Shah told Home Health Care News.

Bayada’s Adoption

In 2015, Bayada cut its readmission rate in half in one home health care location after implementing PreparedHealth’s DINA technology. DINA, a digital nursing assistant, helped Bayada analyze patient data to identify needed care changes and other interventions to prevent hospitalizations.

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DINA works inside PreparedHealth’s enTouch solution, a mobile app that enables real-time updates and communication across providers. PreparedHealth was founded by David Coyle and Shah in 2015, after Coyle sold his previous company, Medicity, the largest health information network in the country that connected nearly 1,300 hospitals, according to Shah.

PreparedHealth’s technology enables Bayada to bring together its multiple service lines for seamless coordination. The provider is expanding the technology in Philadelphia first, before bringing it to all of its locations, according to David Baiada, incoming president and current COO of Bayada.

“We see opportunity to bring the capability to our entire system,” Baiada told HHCN. “We’re going to roll it out as the centerpiece in how we coordinate care. We’re starting in Philadelphia because [that’s where] we deliver every single service. We’re going to perfect the model here first.”

PreparedHealth’s enTouch can act as the “umbrella platform” to all the services that Bayada can offer in the home—personal care, physical therapy, home delivery pharmacy, physician care, and home health care—Baiada said.

The system enables evidence-based care transitions and allows providers to be aware of patients’ conditions.

“The overarching message is creating situation awareness,” Shah explained. “A lot of readmissions have to do with the situation—a person’s capacity, social factors, and any driving anxieties that lead to a rush back to the hospital. [The pilot] proved the whole point of what we were trying to do: put people together to collaborate in care and deliver an outstanding experience.”

Health Care Ecosystem

PreparedHealth’s overall goals are to not only bring together multiple service lines, but also connect health care providers to share information “in the same way they might on Facebook,” Crain’s Chicago Business reported. The technology creates an ecosystem that connects providers, from hospitals and accountable care organizations (ACOs) to home health care companies and other community-based service providers.

“We started PreparedHealth to bring awareness to the ecosystem, to create value for financial efficiency and overall better quality of life,” Shah said. “The ecosystem can be accessed by family caregivers, behind the scenes it allows all to work together in a more efficient care transition process.”

PreparedHealth is also working with Crystal Lake, Illinois-based hospital group Centegra Health System. With its funding in place, the startup will go forth expanding its pipeline of clients and add marketing and sales infrastructure. With a current headcount of 13 employees, PreparedHealth could double in size over the course of the year as it adds sales and marketing teams.

“This is not a small thing we are taking on here,” Shah said. “Home health and home care are one thing, there’s also hospice, community-based organizations, social supports providing community health workers, transportation, meal delivery—the list goes on and on.”

Written by Amy Baxter

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