MultiCare leads the way in healthcare data interoperability via a fully managed solution built with Microsoft and Microsoft partner 3Cloud

Some of the greatest challenges in the healthcare industry concern sharing and exchanging protected health information (PHI). Associated with that is the vital but usually labor-intensive process of reporting quality measures to payers. Patients may see a variety of providers at various sites, sometimes within different healthcare systems, making the need for accurate and timely sharing of information even more critical. In an industry that’s often slow to adopt new technology, the introduction of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards for the electronic sharing of medical records has pushed healthcare providers to find more efficient ways to keep up so they can continue to provide the highest level of care.
 

As a growing healthcare system, MultiCare Health System (MultiCare) needed to streamline its data entry, retrieval, and sharing processes to accelerate data interoperability and comply with FHIR standards. “FHIR is here to stay,” says Anna Taylor, Assistant Vice President for Population Health and Value-Based Care at MultiCare. “It’s the new architecture.” Data exchange is particularly important for the company and its accountable care organization (ACO), MultiCare Connected Care, because the healthcare network relies on sharing membership data. MultiCare turned to Microsoft and Microsoft partner 3Cloud to build a fully managed solution tailored to meet its unique data needs. By partnering with 3Cloud and relying on its expertise as a leading tech consulting firm dedicated solely to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, MultiCare scaled its proof of concept and results across the enterprise.
 

Pursuing flexibility for the future and interoperability for all patients and partners

MultiCare is one of the largest locally owned healthcare systems in Washington state. Along with its ACO, the organization serves hundreds of thousands of patients and works with a long list of payers. MultiCare recognized the need for flexibility in its data systems so that it could provide the best care for its patients. It also wanted to be ready to meet changing healthcare mandates in interoperability as technology continues to advance. MultiCare is adopting standard implementation guides set forth by Health Level Seven International’s Da Vinci Project, a collaboration of private-sector healthcare stakeholders working to facilitate data interoperability, in order to achieve two-way data exchange between payers and providers.
 

As a large system working with many different providers and payers, MultiCare also needed a faster application of its old infrastructures to meet new challenges and circumstances. “We needed a data exchange system that would let us scale data sharing with our payers, whether it was for 100 or 100,000 parties,” says Taylor. “So we turned to Azure to help us build an IT infrastructure solution to do that. We didn’t want to invest in a one-to-one solution—we wanted a many-to-many solution that would help scale and serve all our patients, as well as the 5,200 providers and many payers our networks partner with.”
 

Partnering with Azure experts at 3Cloud to make an innovative solution live in three months

When MultiCare was ready to innovate its data systems, it looked to Microsoft. MultiCare had already worked with Microsoft to establish telehealth capabilities during COVID-19. Now it turned to Azure for a flexible and cost-effective solution, specifically drawing upon the capabilities of Azure DevOps, a set of modern development services, and Azure Health Data Services, a suite of purpose-built technologies for PHI built on FHIR standards.
 

But MultiCare was looking for more than just access to Azure offerings—it was looking for a partnership to help make the most of the versatile solution. “3Cloud’s knowledge, expertise, and talent includes Azure but goes beyond,” says Nick Shepard, Assistant Vice President of Data Orchestration at MultiCare. “3Cloud has staff that is engaged and stays attuned to all the changes and influences in healthcare data. Its talent goes from technology all the way to business, strategy, and operations.” With 3Cloud’s collaboration, MultiCare went live with its new solution in mid-February, following a swift development process that started just three months earlier, in December 2022.
 

Improving the medication reconciliation process by 175 percent

Capitalizing on its collaboration with Microsoft and 3Cloud and the firm’s authoritative knowledge of Azure, MultiCare successfully modernized its data exchange system. The healthcare organization took full advantage of available technology to improve its systems and create the flexible, scalable solution it had envisioned. These improvements in data exchange ultimately helped MultiCare tame the previously tedious, labor-intensive process of medication reconciliation.

“This was a really awesome opportunity to take a really painful process for our patients that often resulted in a delay of care—or in some cases, just a painful experience in the hospital—and automate it,” says Bradd Busick, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of MultiCare. MultiCare used Azure solutions to achieve increased efficiency (175 percent improvement in closing care gaps) in the medication reconciliation process so vital to its work. This translates to a $2,000 return on investment in year one and continued scale and growth in subsequent years.
 

MultiCare saw other savings in its streamlined processes as well. The organization reported a $50 cost savings per patient chart due to faster, automated access to healthcare records and a 67.5 percent time savings due to increased efficiency. Additionally, MultiCare expects to see other measurable patient benefits like reduced wait times. “The things that you can touch and feel and see are increased patient satisfaction and faster processing,” says Busick. MultiCare looks forward to fostering more of these tangible benefits.
 

Harnessing the power of collaboration for the future

MultiCare’s success working with Microsoft and 3Cloud demonstrates the power of collaboration and the broad application potential of cloud computing services. The company’s boost in interoperability, along with newly streamlined processes, positions MultiCare as an industry leader and sets a standard for other healthcare organizations. Taylor stresses the importance of MultiCare’s collaboration with technology partners such as 3Cloud and Microsoft, as well as the opportunity for each to learn from and educate the other. “This isn’t just about MultiCare,” says Taylor. “This is about serving our community—and the way we do that is together as a team of teams.”