Meritage ACO named winner of Dorland Health Case In Point Platinum Award

Zynx Health™, the market leader in providing evidence- and experience-based clinical improvement and mobile care coordination solutions, proudly congratulates Meritage Accountable Care Organization (ACO) for being named a winner in the 6th Annual Dorland Health Case In Point Platinum Awards Program. A ZynxCarebook™ client, Meritage ACO took the top honor for the Case Management in Managed Care Programs' Transition of Care Program category.

The healthcare organization is the first in the North Bay Area of California to be designated a Medicare Shared Savings ACO by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The award was presented on May 7 at a luncheon held at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore as part of Dorland Health's 7th Annual Care Coordination Summit.

Meritage ACO's winning program combines an evidence-based care management model with the ZynxCarebook mobile care navigation network that supports secure, patient-centered collaboration among providers in different care settings. The cloud network brings all participants onto a single information-sharing platform, allowing multi-disciplinary care teams at regional hospitals and post-care facilities to collaborate on evidence-based transition plans and follow up with patients post discharge. Andrea Kmetz, R.N., director of care management and quality assurance at Meritage ACO, continues to be the driving force leading this program.

Siva Subramanian, Ph.D., senior vice president of mobile products at Zynx Health, said, "From the beginning, Meritage ACO has embraced the use of mobile communications, including patient-centered secure text messaging, to deliver consistent, coordinated care that helps improve the transition of high-risk patients with mostly complex chronic conditions to the next level of treatment. We congratulate Andrea and the entire Meritage ACO team for earning this prestigious recognition. We're equally proud that ZynxCarebook is a contributor both to the win and to the outstanding results achieved by these healthcare professionals dedicated to improving people's lives every day."

Meritage ACO encompasses 250 primary care physicians and specialists from its own network, and 21,000 Medicare beneficiaries across Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. Other current participants connected via ZynxCarebook include the 235-bed Marin General Hospital, the 163-bed Novato Healthcare Center and 54-bed San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Center skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and Hospice by the Bay, which operates throughout the North Bay region. The two-year launch program for which Meritage ACO received the Case In Point Platinum Award helped the organization lower the hospital readmission rate among its highest-risk patients to 10.2 percent, well below the 17.5 percent national average in 2013 for Medicare patients.

The Case In Point Platinum Awards Program sets the standard for recognizing professionals and organizations that demonstrate sustained success across a variety of models and settings in the overarching continuum of care coordination. The program recognizes the best in case management and care coordination as a means to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care and outcomes across the healthcare spectrum.

"Transitions between settings have been described as the weak link in effective healthcare. What's more, The Joint Commission has reported that 80 percent of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers during transitions," added Subramanian. "Meritage ACO's award-winning program demonstrates that a well-designed hybrid model of care supporting evidence-based care management and powered by a secure mobile care navigation network can successfully navigate patient transitions to outcomes-based care."

SOURCE Zynx Health