PointClickCare Technologies, a company focused on cloud-based software technology for the long-term and post-acute care market, today announced plans to acquire the cross-continuum coordinated care platform Collective Medical.

Together, the two companies will provide healthcare teams across the acute, ambulatory and post-acute care settings with access to real-time patient data at any stage of a patient’s healthcare journey. The goal is to enable better decision-making and improved clinical outcomes at lower costs, PointClickCare said in the announcement.

“Our mission is to improve the lives of seniors, and we believe the best way to meaningfully advance this goal is by connecting disparate points of care,” said Mike Wessinger, the founder and chief executive officer of PointClickCare Technologies, in a statement. “Collective Medical offers the right fit of people and technology, and together we will initiate a new era of data-enriched collaboration across the continuum that radically transforms how data and people are empowered to liberate health."

Although the terms of the deal were not fully disclosed, it was valued between $500 million and $1 billion. It is still subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalized by the end of December 2020.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Hospitals have long relied on post-acute care facilities to admit patients needing additional care following major surgery or illness. Even before the pandemic, about 26% of hospital discharges were to post-acute care settings, including skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, according to research published in JAMA.

During the pandemic, the reliance on post-acute has become more significant as hospitals lean on them for additional bed capacity and to transition patients that no longer need COVID-19 care.

Collaboration became a necessary process in the pandemic, according to leaders of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York.

“We worked closely with our skilled nursing facility, home care partners, and an acute inpatient rehabilitation hospital to adapt their admissions processes to the patient population with COVID-19, all the while grappling with varying access to vital supplies, testing, and manpower,” they said in a report published in Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection.

“As the patient criteria were established, rapid pathways were created to post-acute care, and we were able to create much-needed bed capacity in our acute care hospitals.”

Combining the two companies will bring together PointClickCare’s network of more than 21,000 skilled nursing facilities, senior living communities and home health agencies with Collective Medical’s platform that supports more than 1,300 hospitals, thousands of ambulatory practices, long-term post-acute care providers, accountable care organizations and every national health plan in the country.

THE LARGER TREND

In 2019, the companies forged a partnership that streamlined the integration of Collective Medical’s care transition tool with PointClickCare’s cloud-based software platform.

PointClickCare also acquired the post-acute care management company QuickMar last year. The deal intended to make it easier for senior living centers and pharmacy partners to adopt and scale their care strategy.

In addition, last year it debuted its mobile app, dubbed the PointClickCare Companion, designed to help senior-living providers track and manage the delivery of their services and medications.

Collective Medical was recently selected to upgrade the Hospital Industry Data Institute’s platform and deliver real-time data to its care teams.

ON THE RECORD

“There is near-perfect alignment between Collective Medical and PointClickCare, given our shared values and mission to support vulnerable populations,” said Chris Klomp, the chief executive officer of Collective Medical, in a statement.

“We are thrilled to join forces with PointClickCare to expand our network even faster as we work to connect healthcare at scale and ensure no patient slips through the cracks of an otherwise fragmented care continuum.”