Hackensack Meridian Health is the latest hospital system to partner with venture capital firm General Catalyst.
General Catalyst will be a “think tank” for Hackensack, a 17-hospital network based in Edison, New Jersey, helping to guide the strategic planning and testing of digital health projects. non-profit economy.
Hackensack is General Catalyst’s fifth health system partner. The venture capital firm plans to partner with up to 15 systems.
“They will act as an advisory body for Hackensack Meridian Health,” said Hackensack CEO Bob Garrett. “They will put pressure to test our strategies.”
For example, General Catalyst will test the system’s digital connections with consumers and suppliers related to data analytics and artificial intelligence, Garrett said.
Similar to General Catalyst’s links to other health systems, none of the funds change hands.
Daryl Tol, General Catalyst’s head of wellness ecosystem, said General Catalyst chose Hackensack because of its diverse mix of services and facilities, leadership, commitment to teaching, and commitment to excellence. board support for innovation.
“We want to accelerate the transformation in healthcare and believe this should be done with what we call a radical partnership,” Tol said in an email. “We wanted to improve our insight and understanding of the gaps and needs associated with conversion.”
Its health assurance network includes healthcare technology companies backed by General Catalyst that aim to improve preventive care, reduce costs and increase access. Several health systems, including York, Pennsylvania-based WellSpan Health, have partnered with General Catalyst to partially use and learn from those successful startups. Hackensack is still evaluating that element of the partnership, Garrett said.
General Catalyst has formed strategic partnerships with Nashville-based HCA Healthcare, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health. Marc Harrison, former CEO of Intermountain, announced he will be leaving Utah’s largest system in August to run a new, unspecified healthcare company for General Catalyst. Dr. Stephen Klasko, former CEO of Jefferson, joined General Catalyst in February as chief executive officer at the residence.
“We want the change to spread across the broader healthcare sector, but it’s a challenging endeavor and requires deep collaboration,” says Tol. “We chose to work with a small number – 15 systems maximum – so that we could focus on the work, measure the impact, communicate and start scaling the activities with the potential really.”
Hackensack is increasingly looking to partner with other companies, inside and outside the industry, to combat the dramatic increase in staffing costs and other financial difficulties. The healthcare system recently partnered with Medently Home and will build on its partnership with Google Cloud.
Medical Home, a Boston-based company that helps set up technology for home hospital programs, received a $100 million investment last year from Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic. and Kaiser Permanente based in Oakland, California. Hackensack kicked off a trial at a home hospital in Edison, New Jersey, in February through a Medicare waiver. Health Home will help Hackensack set up the infrastructure to expand home hospital care across its network, Garrett said.
Hackensack is also entering the next iteration of its partnership with Google Cloud.
The health system plans to host all of its software, including its electronic health records and enterprise resource planning systems, on Google Cloud. Hackensack can leverage Google Cloud to automate and improve intake and discharge processes, enhance predictive care, coordinate virtual nursing care and advance genomic testing, said Kash Patel, chief information officer and supervisor digital director at Hackensack said.
“The foresight is to think about interoperability and real transformation as the research world evolves and complex fields like genomic testing become more complex,” he said. “Google Cloud will allow us to seamlessly integrate solutions so we can improve the patient journey.”
