FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Sept 24, 2013; Andover, MA

Yankee Alliance announces a new contract with Garnet River LLC to provide Owl™ to its members.  Owl™ is a proven software application that helps healthcare facilities gain an understanding of current patient satisfaction, analyze and correct trends, and markedly improve nursing efficiency.

Garnet River has been working with hospitals since 2009. Today, hospitals use Owl™ to collect and analyze data pertaining to everything from nurse leader rounding to patient safety (e.g. hand hygiene monitoring) to quality assurance and accreditation readiness (e.g., Joint Commission tracers), among many others.  The target is any non-clinical data that is important to your operations but is not keyed into or measured by EMR systems—in other words, Owl™ does not compete with EMR systems, it complements them.

Ellis Medicine, a Yankee Alliance member hospital, is an Owl™ customer.  Says Chief Nursing Officer Cece Lynch, “At Ellis Medicine we are dedicated to finding new, innovative ways to improve both the patient experience and the efficiency of care delivery…so we were particularly pleased to recently begin working with the team at Garnet River to bring Owl™, their outstanding patient care product, into our hospital. It was simple to set up, our people like working with it, and the patient experience is improving along with the efficiency of our patient care operation.”

Live data collected by mobile Owl™ users provides real-time visibility into the effectiveness of process changes and the subsequent backend reporting allows for the deployment of statistical correlations between Owl™ data and post-discharge surveys.  The real-time alert functionality provided by Owl™ both ensures that service recovery is completed before the patient is discharged and drives down nursing hours per patient day.  Better communication, easy access to data, and improved efficiency all result in a stronger patient experience.

 “One of the best ways to improve any experience is to simplify it—to remove complications, unnecessary layers, hassles, or distractions, while focusing on the essence of what people want and need in that particular situation,” said Greg Magin, director of the products division at Garnet River. “Hospitals and technology can alone be disorienting and intimidating, and while too much automation of the patient experience risks isolating the patient from his or her care team and creating a very impersonal hospital stay, Owl™ accentuates the importance of personal care.”

About Garnet River
Founded in 2000, Garnet River LLC is a privately-held middle-tier technology and business consulting firm headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York.  We offer deep expertise and sophisticated delivery systems comparable to large companies and a high quality, sophisticated client base typified by repeat business and strong references.  Our core competencies center around technology consulting, business process management, software development, and systems integration, with an industry focus in health and human services.  For more information, contact gmagin@garnetriver.com or 518-275-4800 x 8054, visit http://www.garnetriver.com, http://www.theowladvantage.com, or follow Garnet River on Twitter: https://twitter.com/garnetriver

For more information please contact; Amy Campbell, Senior Vice President, Administration, Yankee Alliance, (978) 470-2000 or at acampbell@yankeealliance.com.