New company to serve LTPAC, senior living and behavioral health organizations with EHR platform and efficient, vendor-agnostic open integration
Salt Lake City–Feb. 3, 2014–BlueStep Systems, provider of the industry’s only client-configurable care and clinical platform for the long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) market, and BridgeGate Health, a provider of robust integrated solutions that efficiently connect disparate applications and technologies, today announced they have merged. The new company’s mission is to help improve quality of life for seniors and caregivers.
BlueStep/BridgeGate Health provides a powerful answer to the most common healthcare IT problem – how to turn data, content and care activities across disparate systems into meaningful information, when and where providers need it.
Leading with an open market business philosophy, the company delivers Clinical Care Exchange™, a platform combining a native EHR with powerful integration tools for connectivity across the healthcare continuum. The solution positions LTPAC and other healthcare organizations to thrive in the fast-evolving era of value-based healthcare. Population health requires real-time availability of patient information from disparate IT systems across all healthcare providers to deliver the best possible quality outcomes.
Healthcare industry veteran Tom Bang will serve as CEO of the new company. Bang, previously the CEO of BlueStep Systems, has a track record of leading successful private equity-backed healthcare technology ventures, including MediTROL, an automated medication dispensing manufacturer acquired by Cardinal Health, and A-Life Medical, Inc., the pioneer of computer-assisted coding products, acquired by Optum (UnitedHealth Group). Bang also held a variety of executive positions at American Hospital Supply, Baxter International, and Cardinal Health (Pyxis Corporation).
“The merger of BridgeGate and BlueStep joins our two companies with a shared vision, that health information technology should facilitate, not dictate, the quality of our loved ones’ care,” said Bang. “We believe open connectivity and collaboration—which includes enabling the competitive products our customers’ choose—is a basic requirement to ensure the highest levels of care. Our Clinical Care Exchange™ ensures seamless connectivity across the healthcare continuum, efficiently integrating providers’ systems with our integrated or competitive EHR.” Bang added, “I’m delighted to share our team members’ passion for enhancing the delivery of our loved ones’ care by revolutionizing the way healthcare information and technology are used.”
BridgeGate is currently a leading force in systems integration, seamlessly facilitating millions of data transactions across the globe each day. BridgeGate technology is used by some of the nation’s largest long-term care providers to enable other market EHRs, and in several of the nation’s most visible Health Information Exchanges (HIEs). BridgeGate technology also empowers many B2B and B2C companies within and outside of healthcare, including SunRx, SkyMall and the Home Shopping Network, a $3.3 billion interactive multichannel retailer that reaches 95 million homes.
The company plans to announce its new name and logo in the next few months. Meanwhile, the merged entity will be referred to as BlueStep/BridgeGate Health and will maintain offices in Salt Lake City, UT and Jacksonville, FL.
About BlueStep/BridgeGate Health
BlueStep/BridgeGate Health believes health information technology should facilitate, not dictate, the quality of our loved ones’ care. BridgeGate is the industry’s most advanced systems integration technology provider; BlueStep provides the industry’s only client-configurable care and clinical platform with an integrated Electronic Health Record (EHR). Together, the companies have created Clinical Care Exchange™ to turn previously inaccessible disparate content, data and care activities into meaningful information, delivered when and where providers, caregivers and payers need it.
BlueStep/BridgeGate Health leads the industry with an open market philosophy and proven capability to connect any system and any application (including competitors) to create powerful Clinical Care Exchanges™. These exchanges also connect many of the nation’s largest EHRs, pharmacy, lab and other ancillary systems to LTPAC, senior living, behavioral health organizations and HIEs across the nation. Open, connect, care: the company’s open market philosophy coupled with proven connectivity technology enables healthcare providers to deliver the highest possible quality care.
