As electronic medical records— the digital version of a doctor’s paper chart — become more commonplace, it’s important for the information they hold to be updated in real-time.
Having one hub for all of the patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, test results, and involved clinicians can be helpful for treatment, but if it’s not accurate, it becomes a nuisance at best case, and at worse, downright dangerous.
“There are all kinds of time-consuming admin tasks that doctors, nurses and case managers have to do before they can actually start taking care of patients. There was this kind of expectation that EMRs would help that, but it really hasn’t,” says Ana Gomez del Campo.
“If a patient has a 3-5 day hospital stay, it’s not unusual for them to see 30 different providers. However, only 1 in 10 of those providers will be documented in the patient’s EMR.”
Gomez del Campo co-founded Surefhir to increase efficiency within the hospital system by automatically identifying which provider has worked with each patient and when.
The Surefhir team saw that hospital leadership often needed to know who was taking care of a patient at any given time. This can be especially helpful when an error is made or test results need to be delivered to the right physician.
For example, a radiologist who sees a potential problem in an x-ray will want to contact the patient’s lead physician. But the person who ordered the scan is not always that lead contact. There’s no easy way to find this out aside from calling around.
Surefhir automatically updates charts with each provider that works or consults on the patient by aggregating chart log-ins, notes, lab orders, and other admin tasks. This keeps the chart accurate and workflow uninterrupted.
The API platform integrates into a hospital’s existing electronic chart system. The market for this type of EHR API tool is expected to rapidly grow, with one estimate putting it as high as a $243 million industry by 2024.
Gomez del Campo says that the on-boarding process for the hospital will depend on its willingness to digitize quickly. However, the information is similar to that of a security and privacy audit trail, so any hospital can theoretically use the technology.
Surefhir can also look at how each provider, including nurses, doctors, and specialists, is spending their time at work. “As a hospital, you want to make sure you’re deploying your assets in a way that maximizes value,” says Gomez del Campo.
The API’s AI and machine learning components look at several factors including consults, tasks, and types of patients the hospital is seeing, to determine the best way to use the hospital’s talent.
“If you have an electro-cardiologist, a very specialized doctor, you want to make sure they’re seeing the right patients to maximize their expertise, and reassign cases that can be seen by someone lower in the hierarchy,” she says. Surefhir pulls together best practices based on the data they acquire.
Gomez del Campo says they have implemented a “risk sharing model” where the startup makes money based on how much the hospital clients save.
The startup is currently undergoing a pilot with one of the biggest health systems in the Southeast. Following a seed investment from Jumpstart Foundry, they plan to fundraise following the end of the pilot.
