There are plenty of opportunities for software solutions in healthcare operations, ranging from medical-records management to analytics to compliance. But digital experts shared with Business Journal readers, there’s no one-size-fits-all digital health solution (see story, page 22).
Tagnos Inc. develops software designed to improve workflow. Its system, comprised of lightweight tags, sensors, analytics and a proprietary database, is used to pinpoint and display the location of patients, equipment and caregivers.
Founder and Chief Executive Neeraj Bhavani said Tagnos’ tracking system improves patient flow and maximizes the use of equipment and staff, which results in improved patient satisfaction—a plus for care providers.
The Affordable Care Act changed how Medicare compensates hospitals. Total hospital Medicare reimbursement was reduced by 1%, but hospitals could get pay restored if they boast high patient-satisfaction scores.
Tagnos is riding that wave. Last week it closed a $5 million series A round led by Benhamou Global Ventures LLC, an early-stage enterprise technology investor in Palo Alto. Benhamou has additional offices in Israel.
Proceeds will be used to support growth. Bhavani said the company plans to hire additional sales and marketing personnel at its Irvine headquarters, increasing the head count from eight to about 20.
Timely
Tagnos snatched some reputable growth-stage investors. The round included Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Zebra Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: ZBRA), which makes mobile computers, barcode scanners and barcode printers, and Sherman Oaks-based Morpheus Ventures. Zebra made the investment through investment arm Zebra Ventures.
“Zebra Ventures is building our position in the Enterprise Asset Intelligence space, and Tagnos fits the bill perfectly,” said Zebra Ventures Managing Director Tony Palcheck. He said Tagnos, by allowing caregivers to more easily monitor the progress of each care task, helps to identify system flow issues and ultimately “improves hospital workflow and patient care.”
Bhavani, who had the idea in 2005 when he founded Tagnos, said the company didn’t launch in earnest until 2010. “We started to gain traction in 2012.”
Part of the delay was that technology was catching up—sensors were bulky and expensive. The system is currently comprised of a lightweight sensor wristband for patients, with larger sensors placed throughout designated areas or departments to track patients and equipment via signals from wristbands or tags. It also comes with staff alerts, patient and family updates, analytics and a dashboard that displays information like patient flow, equipment location and room readiness.
In 2013, the company got another boost from Affordable Care, basing Medicare payment partially on patient satisfaction with the quality of their care.
Bhavani said its product is primarily used in high-revenue, high-service areas like emergency departments. “There are so many moving parts in a hospital, from the moment a patient walks through those hospital doors. Problems tracking patients, rooms and equipment can lead to patient dissatisfaction and an inefficient use of time and staff,” he said.
Data from early adopter White Memorial Medical Center in Pennsylvania. University of Southern California showed that “our technology improved utilization of unused rooms by 18 to 22%,” Bhavani said.
The company says 10 hospitals are using its product, including St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.
Data
Patients can wait too long for treatment in emergency rooms when processes ranging from registration to check-in to connecting physicians and specialists, aren’t streamlined. Bhavani said wait time could be reduced using Tagnos to improve visibility of workflow. Hospital staff can create separate chat rooms for individual patients to better coordinate care.
Sensors tracks patient wait time in the waiting room and whether a patient is changing rooms or is waiting to be seen by a doctor. Family members can receive text messages about a patient’s progress or consult a patient board on a wall in the hospital to see where he or she is in the process. The board displays numbers assigned to each patient to ensure privacy.
Bhavani said part of investor proceeds will support research and development in artificial intelligence to provide more insight on patient workflow.
Tagnos works out of the EvoNexus Irvine location. It was one of eight companies admitted there in 2015.
It’s also part of Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence, the accelerator program of San Jose-based technology conglomerate Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), a manufacturer of networking hardware, telecommunication equipment and other high-tech services and products.
