Central Logic case study

For health systems, managing patient transfers is a life-saving endeavor; for Central Logic, supporting this endeavor with innovative, cloud-based solutions has been the company's mission since its founding in 2005. Central Logic helps leading hospitals and health systems improve patient care orchestration and access by providing the industry's only purpose-built solution for managing interfacility acute patient transfers—typically the most complex transfers that health facilities encounter. Through its solutions, Central Logic empowers today’s health systems with the vital strategic capabilities they need to increase referrals of new patients while reducing the leakage of existing patients.

To date, Central Logic has partnered with more than 65 health systems, representing approximately 500 hospitals, enabling them to provide the right care to patients, at the right location, without delay. Central Logic has been named a "fastest growing private company" by both Inc. 500 and Utah Business Magazine, and recently selected Microsoft Azure cloud as the exclusive platform to deliver all of its cloud-based solutions. As a result, health systems that partner with Central Logic benefit from the security, reliability, and regulatory compliance that form the bedrock of Microsoft Azure.

Balancing patient health with business health

Most health systems operate in highly competitive markets, meaning that referring physicians and their patients typically have multiple care destination options from which they can choose. When a health system’s transfer processes are inadequate or difficult to use, referring physicians will likely send their patients elsewhere for advanced or specialized care—even if the patient has to travel further for high-quality care that could otherwise be obtained more quickly and closer to home. For patients, any delay in treatment may result in less-than-optimal clinical outcomes. For the health system, a referral to a competitive facility translates to the leakage of not just patients, but of critical revenue as well—up to $10,800 per patient, according to a University of Utah Eccles School of Business study.

Central Logic delivers the expertise and technology to equip health systems with a clear, centralized vantage point of patient movement, including visibility into potential barriers, as well as solutions to optimize patient care orchestration and access. With Central Logic as their partner, health systems can achieve their full potential—clinically, operationally, and financially—and become the destination of choice for referring physicians.

Empowering care teams: better views, better decisions

Central Logic offers health systems a strategic partnership and proven, industry-leading software that provides an enterprise-level view of every point of access to healthcare services. Delivered via Microsoft Azure, the Central Logic solution enables clinical staff to make efficient and informed decisions as they refer, admit, and move patients into and throughout their health systems. More broadly, it provides health systems with an unparalleled ability to collaboratively orchestrate, navigate, and elevate the flow of patients through the entire continuum of care.

Central Logic selected Microsoft Azure to deliver its solutions following an extensive evaluation. Azure not only met Central Logic's requirements, but excelled in the three areas that matter most: availability, security, and compliance. With Azure, Central Logic can confidently assure its clients that:

• The system will be available when they need it. With every call into a transfer center, someone’s health—possibly even a life—hangs in the balance. System downtime can delay care when every second counts.
• Its solution is highly secure, as evidenced by extensive security certifications, including ISO 9001, ISO 27001, SOC2, SSAE 16, HIPAA/HITECH, HITRUST, and regular penetration testing.
• The system protects sensitive patient data as it is accessed, stored, and manipulated, in full compliance with all applicable regulations.

Better outcomes—for everyone

The combination of Central Logic solutions and Microsoft Azure cloud creates a uniquely powerful force for health systems as they strive for healthier patients, happier providers, streamlined operations, and bottom-line growth. With Central Logic, health systems get a centralized solution to meet the challenges of managing even the most complex interfacility acute patient transfers, while patients themselves get the high-quality care they need, when they need it, and where it's best delivered. Among the most impactful benefits:

• Referring physicians need only call a single phone number to access a full range of care options delivered in all of a health system’s hospitals, specialty centers, and other facilities.
• Transfer center staff and clinicians have a centralized, comprehensive view of capacity and physician schedules (including on-call) across the enterprise.
• By operating as a single entity, even the largest health systems can achieve operational improvements that impact clinical and financial outcomes.
• Health system leaders can easily access and comprehend patient transfer data, enabling them to make decisions that streamline the orchestration of care and prevent leakage to other health systems.

On average, Central Logic clients see patient transfers and referrals grow by 29 percent in the first year, along with continued ongoing revenue growth. Time to treatment is also dramatically reduced, resulting in better patient outcomes, while operational visibility and efficiencies are significantly enhanced. For one client that had experienced a two-year decline in transfer volume growth—from 13.7 percent down to 2.4 percent—implementing the Central Logic solution reversed this trend, driving growth back up to 16.5 percent in the following year. For this same client, frustratingly long transfer times dropped by 33 percent in the first year and are presently on track to meet the client’s goal of an 84 plus percent reduction.

But most important, transferred patients are receiving a higher quality of care due to fewer delays and because they’re being transferred to the most appropriate location for their condition—an outcome that aligns perfectly with Central Logic CEO Angie Franks’ articulated goal of “delivering patients safe, quick, and efficient access to the right care, at the right location, without delay.”