Boise, ID and Kingwood, TX (April 26, 2018) — Kno2, the company that provides Interoperability as a Service to everyone in health care, and Vision Source, North America’s largest independent optometric alliance, today announced their collaboration to improve the eye exam referral process within the health care community. Kno2: Interoperability as a Service enables an efficient, closed-loop referral process that gives physicians the information they need when they need it, improving the overall quality of care.
Vision Source collaborates with accountable care organizations, integrated networks and health plans to address the needs of patients with chronic diseases—especially diabetes, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis—to effectively provide quality care and close care gaps. Currently, referrals, reports and patient information are largely exchanged via manual fax, which has proven to be ineffective, delaying the quality of care for all patients. Continuously improving practice management efforts, Vision Source searched for an interoperability solution that could provide an effective and secure form of electronic communication that is agnostic to the EHR being used by the provider on either end.
Kno2: Interoperability as a Service was the fastest path to interoperability for Vision Source because Kno2 immediately turns on connectivity between their optometric network with over 3,300 practice locations and the physicians within various health systems. As documented in a recent case study, what was once an open-ended referral process that took four to 12 weeks is now secure and expedited via Direct messaging, closing the loop on those referrals to seven to 10 days. The relationship has turned out to be mutually beneficial, as Kno2 has been able to significantly improve Vision Source’s reporting capabilities and demonstrate its true performance to payers, health systems and ACOs while reducing the workflow burden on providers at both ends of the care continuum.
Given the recent announcement by CMS renaming the Meaningful Use program to “Promoting Interoperability” and The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Advancing Care Information performance category to be renamed to the “Promoting Interoperability” performance category, Kno2: Interoperability as a Service ensures Vision Source doctors continue to deliver higher quality of care for their patients, improved communication with primary care colleagues and enhanced service with collaborative health systems and health plans.
“It was a significant problem solver,” said VP and Chief Medical Officer at Vision Source Dr. Paul Williams. “In some cases, fax requests never reached us, were lost or were not legible; it was a frustrating process with no accountability or tracking,” he said. “Now, our doctors receive the referral electronically, along with a complete history of the patient which can be integrated directly into their EHR. The pilot has gone so well that we are extending Kno2: Interoperability as a Service connectivity to all Vision Source clinics across the United States.”
“Kno2’s health care reach and use cases seem to grow every day and we’re humbled by the impact we can have on patient care,” said Jon Elwell, Kno2 CEO. “Dr. Williams and Vision Source working collaboratively with Kno2 has proven to be a true success story. By allowing providers to have instant access to patient information and documentation, it’s possible that we collectively prevented a patient from losing their vision. That is an amazing outcome.”
Kno2 will be exhibiting in the Expert Village and offering a joint presentation with Dr. Paul Williams at the upcoming 2018 Vision Source Exchange conference in Anaheim, CA, on May 2-5, 2018 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
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About Vision Source
Founded in 1991, Vision Source is North America’s largest network of independent optometrists consisting of over 4,700 members. The clinicians in the Vision Source network enjoy access to newly evolving patient channels, including an expanding list of leading medical groups and integrated health systems with whom Vision Source optometrists collaborate. Additionally, members benefit from a wide range of innovative technologies, practice management tools, strategic marketing, and purchasing power. Leveraging these tools, the clinicians offer comprehensive eye care to their patients delivering an industry-leading patient experience.
About Kno2
Kno2 is leading health care’s path to interoperability across every patient care setting. Kno2: Interoperability as a Service (IaaS) turns on connectivity to millions of health care providers and the capability to send, receive, find and use patient information with everyone. Kno2’s IaaS enables access to providers via cloud faxing, direct secure messaging, patient information query, and patient care networks (referrals, ACOs, HIEs) guided by connectivity assessments and analytics.
