First-of-its-kind platform by Lumināt successfully implemented by UMass Memorial; national launch coming (image: Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
MINNEAPOLIS, April 22, 2014 (Korea Bizwire) – Lumināt announces a development partnership with UMass Memorial Health Care (UMass Memorial) for an industry-leading advance care planning platform to fully integrate patients’ end-of-life directives into their electronic medical records.
This ground-breaking development partnership will equip all UMass Memorial providers to access, understand and implement patients’ wishes, reducing the cost of care at end of life while improving care quality and satisfaction of patients and their families.
“Unwanted end-of-life health care services can have a significant emotional and financial impact on patients and their families. It’s estimated that $40 to $70 billion in unwanted health care services will be delivered at patients’ end of life in the next decade,” says Tom Valdivia, M.D., M.S., chief executive officer of Lumināt. “Advance care plans should not be viewed as a ‘nice to have.’ Not having an advance care plan should be considered a medical error.”
The partnership between Lumināt and UMass Memorial will enable physicians to consistently document the end-of-life wishes from patients – from palliative care preferences and specific spiritual beliefs, to identifying the individuals who should be involved and informed in the decision-making process.
The data is then fed into the patient’s electronic medical record via cloud-based technology, giving the entire provider system the same information and instructions, and helping family members understand the patient’s end-of-life preferences.
“Lumināt’s advance care planning platform integrated with UMass Memorial’s electronic medical records is a first in the industry,” says Valdivia. “Up to this point, patients completed the advance care directive on paper and submitted it to their physician to be filed away. As a result, the instructions weren’t accessible by all providers and were left open to interpretation from doctor to doctor.”
Lumināt and UMass Memorial’s development partnership is based on a shared dedication to improving care for patients near end of life.
“Unless communicated in advance, many medical treatments provided at the end of life are inconsistent with patients’ wishes,” says David Fairchild, M.D., senior vice president of clinical integration at UMass Memorial. “As UMass Memorial transitions to being an accountable care organization, we recognized the opportunity to use Lumināt technology to enable and support conversations about end of life.”
About Lumināt Lumināt is a leading advance care planning solutions company that helps health care providers achieve the Triple Aim for people at end of life. Lumināt’s cloud-based, private-label technology offers a way for patients to document their wishes, share them with providers at the right time, and get the end-of-life care they want. Founded in 2012, Lumināt is committed to helping provider organizations deliver better care at a lower cost. For more information, please visit www.luminat.com.
About UMass Memorial Health Care
UMass Memorial Health Care is Central Massachusetts’ largest not-for-profit health care delivery system, covering the complete health care continuum with UMass Memorial Medical Center, its academic medical center, member and affiliated community hospitals, freestanding primary care practices, ambulatory outpatient clinics, a rehabilitation group and mental health services. UMass Memorial is the clinical partner of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. To learn more about UMass Memorial, please visit www.umassmemorial.org, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Source: Lumināt & UMass Memorial Health Care (via BusinessWire)
