This article is sponsored by Trella Health. In this Voices interview, Home Health Care News sits down with Kathy Ford, Chief Product Officer, Trella Health, to talk about emerging technologies in home-based care and how they will impact providers in the near future. She explains how Trella is staying ahead of these trends by implementing customer feedback to enhance their products and improve the experience for end users across the post-acute care industry. She also outlines key steps providers can take to adopt a data-forward strategy and stay competitive in the current operating environment.

Home Health Care News: What is your background, and how did it lead you to Trella Health?

Kathy Ford: I’ve spent my entire career of more than 30 years in health care. During this time, I’ve built and grown solutions and companies, always with a strong desire to make a real difference in this space. My experience spans across the continuum — I started in acute care, moved through post-acute, and delivered numerous solutions in ambulatory settings. In fact, I’ve delivered over 100 clinically impactful solutions in 52 countries so far, many of which are still saving lives and remain in clinical use today. I’m very proud of that achievement.

For me, health care is deeply personal. Trella found me, but I was especially drawn to them because I have a very ill family member, for whom I am a caregiver, legal guardian and medical authority. I’ve witnessed her navigating various post-acute facilities, home care, and readmissions. I’ve seen the gaps in care processes and the inefficiencies have been eye-opening.

Additionally, I believe post-acute care is the “sleeping giant” of the continuum, ripe for innovation to drive efficiencies and make a significant impact, particularly given our aging population and the rise of certain diseases, like cancer.

Talk about some of the key challenges facing post-acute care providers today.

Not dissimilar to other parts of the continuum, staffing remains a significant challenge, both in terms of having the right staff with the right skill set and addressing burnout. Technology can help alleviate issues by automating certain tasks, prioritizing based on rules, and meaningful insights to deliver optimal patient care.

As we move towards a fully value-based care setting by 2030, many stressors are emerging for our customers in this space, with care coordination central to these challenges. Agencies and facilities strive to deliver the best care possible, but inefficiencies, staffing shortages and other challenges often make this difficult. From my personal experience, I’ve seen how coordination issues can have a downstream, exponential effect on patient outcomes.

What emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant growth impact on post-acute care in the near future?

I’m going to start with interoperability. It’s not groundbreaking, but it is essential and urgently needed. We have to democratize data in post-acute care. Healthcare vendors are further along with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) CURES Act in ambulatory and acute care; post-acute care still needs this advancement. Data should be more freely and easily available to solutions and users, and it should not be a competitive advantage for any vendor from my viewpoint. Being smarter, faster and more comprehensive should be a priority for everyone in this space, regardless of their role. From Trella’s perspective, this is fundamental.

There’s also an urgent need for intelligent care transition tools. We need to eliminate low-value steps such as faxing, calling, and retyping, and focus on creating efficient documentation that keeps the right people informed — armed with the ability to make swift, data-driven decisions.

The future requires advanced technology powered by data that surfaces information to the appropriate users at the point of care. We should not expect clinicians, administrators, and field staff to navigate through multiple systems to find documentation and updates. We need to be proactive in addressing these challenges.

How will Trella Health adapt its vision and solutions to help providers navigate these technology trends over the next few years?

We are continuing to invest in workflow automation solutions and leveraging the most current technologies to achieve that. As a data company, our job is to surface the most meaningful insights at the point of need — the right information, the right way, to the right person. At Trella, we reinvest our revenue right back into the company. We view ourselves as relatively new in this space, committed to making a difference and leading the way.

We have ambitious plans involving data science, AI, machine learning and natural language processing. While these terms are frequently discussed, what sets Trella apart is our commitment to using these technologies safely, securely, and with transparency and trust.

How does Trella Health incorporate customer feedback into its product development processes, and what does that look like for the end user?

We have a multi-pronged approach.

At the forefront are our customer advisory boards, which we meet with regularly to ensure we understand their biggest pain points, market headwinds and challenges — then we feed that information back to our teams. As a product leader, conducting interviews is a daily task, and with over 750 customers, we have many voices to hear, all of which are extremely important.

We also integrate Net Promoter Score (NPS) within our solutions and actively seek feedback from users in a controlled manner to avoid burdening them. It is critical that every Trella team member understands a day in the life of our clients and partners.

What initial steps can providers take to embrace a data-driven approach and stay competitive in today’s environment? Can you share any success stories?

Staying ahead of market data and leveraging the Trella platform to access everything — from field performance and referral patterns to quality measures — is where we see our customers most successful. Our customers use this data to make decisions about M&A and to identify potential leakage or gaps.

Care coordination and continuity with Sales productivity tools or CRM is a great example of how our customers use this tool to stay connected with patients throughout their care journey and be valuable to their referral partners. Trella is a leader in the industry, with major clients like LHC, which has implemented our CRM across their entire field organization. One of LHC’s top requests, which was also a highly-voted concept in our idea center, was scheduling enhancements. As a result of using our CRM, LHC saw a 42% reduction in turnaround time and referral response rate.

Finish this sentence: “In the home-based care industry, 2024 will be defined by…”

… increased M&A.

I think we’re beginning to see post-acute care find its way into value-based care in a more mainstream way. Currently, post-acute is only lightly involved. While some ACOs include post-acute care, in 2024 we’re seeing a growing focus on understanding quality measures, negotiating contracts, and forming the right networks based on the care each provider delivers.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Trella Health empowers post-acute care organizations with integrated market intelligence and CRM tools needed to make informed decisions and drive growth. Discover how our platform helps you pinpoint high-value referral sources, expand strategically in your market, and maximize ROI.  Ready to see the Trella Health advantage? Request a demo today: https://www.trellahealth.com/demo.

The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].