Introduction to Strive Health
Strive Health, a value-based kidney care provider, noticed many of its health IT vendors, like the provider itself, operate extensively in the value-based care space and collaborate with accountable care organizations and health systems.
The Challenge
These systems’ models need to be manifested in Strive’s technology and workflows, and Strive was having a hard time finding a technology vendor that could provide that unique use case the provider required. That spurred the need for Strive staff to build their own technology versus buying it. They needed a tool that helped with everything from identifying which patients should be a part of which care pathways while leveraging data science and machine learning modeling to understand what patient care characteristics best align with parts of Strive’s care model.
Proposal
The risk stratification logic that many other value-based care vendors use looks at a much broader population, and so they are typically identifying all patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD). Strive Health’s proposal and what their technology sought to focus on is identifying the most high-risk patients within that group who they can have the most impact on. They wanted to use their technology to develop individualized care plans for people with CKD, guiding them on a care path that addresses the issue early – preventing progression to dialysis or transplant.
Meeting the Challenge
The technology Strive Health created is called CareMultiplier. It aggregates and standardizes data from a multitude of sources and leverages a suite of predictive analytic models that support deep insights into kidney patient data profiles. The model has always been about building technology for their internal care teams and their Kidney Heroes who are their primary users. This way, all of their patient-facing staff – from nurse practitioners and medical assistants to care coordinators and social workers – are using the customized workflows they’ve built.
Results
At the beginning of 2024, Strive Health rolled out a new assessment workflow that made a huge impact on initial documentation time, cutting it almost in half. That created more time for the Kidney Heroes to spend with patients and not just collecting assessment information. Because of the insights and data analysis CareMultiplier delivers to care teams, Strive has achieved a 36% reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions, a 49% reduction in hospitalizations among high-risk patients, and a 67% increase in optimal starts – a planned start of renal replacement therapy by receiving a preemptive kidney transplant, initiating home dialysis or initiating in-center hemodialysis.
Advice for Others
Other healthcare provider organizations should have a long-sighted worldview, though it takes a lot of investment capital for a business to have that luxury. There are multiple external factors at play and you have to have that organizational commitment to do it. Custom building a technology to suit the operational and clinical model of a startup organization is one that is filled with uncertainty. Organizations must think about how to build reusable technology that is extremely flexible. Finding that right balance, and more important, ensuring the relationship with the operational teams and the clinical teams is really strong so there are tight feedback loops, is critical to success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Strive Health’s approach to building their own technology has been successful in improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare utilization. Their CareMultiplier technology has been able to identify high-risk patients and provide individualized care plans, resulting in significant reductions in hospital readmissions and hospitalizations. Other healthcare organizations can learn from Strive Health’s approach and consider building their own technology to suit their specific needs.
FAQs
Q: What is Strive Health’s CareMultiplier technology?
A: CareMultiplier is a technology developed by Strive Health that aggregates and standardizes data from multiple sources and uses predictive analytic models to provide deep insights into kidney patient data profiles.
Q: What are the benefits of CareMultiplier?
A: CareMultiplier has been able to identify high-risk patients and provide individualized care plans, resulting in significant reductions in hospital readmissions and hospitalizations.
Q: What advice does Strive Health have for other healthcare organizations?
A: Strive Health advises other healthcare organizations to have a long-sighted worldview, build reusable technology that is extremely flexible, and ensure strong relationships between operational and clinical teams.
Q: What are the results of Strive Health’s CareMultiplier technology?
A: Strive Health has achieved a 36% reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions, a 49% reduction in hospitalizations among high-risk patients, and a 67% increase in optimal starts.
