The ProtoHIT software is built on three fundamental capabilities: Treat, Communicate and Measure. It provides treatment guidelines for most common injuries during case management, facilitates communications between providers and employers, and measures treatment outcomes for continuous improvement.

Treatment

ProtoHIT empowers occupational nurses, physicians and other providers to apply their knowledge and measure their efficacy of treatment plans using broad-based protocols. The ProtoHIT protocols are best practices for standardized treatment. The 21 protocols cover 80-85% of the most common work-related injuries, such as eye injury, lower back strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, knee, ankle or wrist sprain. Each protocol includes one or more conditions based on ICD-9 codes related to the injury category. Over 1,000 different ICD codes are covered in the 21 protocols. For example, the eye injury protocol has 62 conditions.

The protocols provide guidelines for identifying work status, activity levels, medication, physical therapy, tests, treatments and supplies required. The guidelines also provide standardized time required for an injured patient to return to work (RTW) at maximum medical improvement (MMI). Week by week changes are shown until the patient reaches MMI. If the patient isn’t tracking, then they are pushed “out of protocol” and flagged for more attention.

For example, one ProtoHIT customer began treatment of a woman with a sprained wrist right before they started using the software. As they started using the system, the return to work estimate was 12 weeks. However, at week 12 she was still not better. They found after doing more examinations that an earlier injury to her wrist was preventing her recovery. Had they been using the ProtoHIT software before the injury the system would have caught this issue in week 4, enabling the patient to return to work about 8 weeks sooner.

Obviously there are other types of injuries outside of the ProtoHIT protocols. These are injuries that are more serious in nature and tend to be the high-cost cases. ProtoHIT flags these cases so that the patients can get deeper treatment and help contain their cost of treatment.

Providers are not compelled to use the guidelines. They are not compliant-based protocols. Physicians and nurses are able to use their best judgment based on their diagnosis. ProtoHIT stills tracks the treatment when providers use out-of-protocol treatments so they can be measured along with in-protocol treatments.

Communicate

ProtoHIT allows healthcare providers to print or email Return to Work (RTW) forms to the employers, treatment/billing forms and patient records. When users log in to the system, they can view information on the patient, the treatment details, resources used, outstanding claims and those cases that are out of protocol (where patients need more treatment). They can also provide employers with a RTW target date right after diagnosis and the selection of the treatment option. This RTW date is given right with the treatment guidelines.

All information is stored in a central database, which means that all authorized users have access to the same information in real time (up to the minute). Providers can choose to allow access for HR & risk managers to print a summarized list of open claims so they can quickly get employee status without having to pick up the phone and call.

ProtoHIT provides a platform that can support a single authorization for treatment. Providers and employers could agree that if the patient’s treatment stays within protocol, then only a single treatment is required. This not only reduces a lot of administrative overhead, it can potentially get injured employees back to work much quicker by cutting down delays in treatment when waiting for approvals.

Measure

ProtoHIT monitors treatment, work status & patient outcomes. It tracks the progress each patient is making towards MMI and RTW.

One set of measurements is actual injury rates by ICD-9 codes. Using these statistics, providers can see what types of injuries are most common. If their employers capture information such as plant or cost center, they can also drill down as to the frequency of injuries by plant or type of production. This is helpful to pinpoint those areas where re-engineering, job re-assignment, or additional safety training is needed.

For example, when Dr. Wagner was working with a lumber mill, he found that a particular line was seeing one type of injury more often than others. Safety managers were able to pinpoint the problem (which turned out to be a specific supervisor selling meth to his workers to speed up their delivery!).

ProtoHIT also does treatment scoring for each claim. This allows providers to measure the efficacy of their treatment plans. In the future, they will optionally be able to compare them to other clinics across the country. The treatment score is a combination of actual resources consumed along with the number of loss days and restricted days. This flexibility allows innovation in patient treatment while benchmarking the results.

Web-based Application

ProtoHIT is a web-based application. (Sometimes called Software-as-a-Service or SaaS. It is also called “cloud computing” meaning the application runs in the cloud—the Internet).  This makes it easy for clinics to get up and running fast. They do not need to install any servers or complex software. ProtoHIT can get a customer’s site setup in a few hours.  All customers need is a browser and an Internet connection. Browsers supported include Firefox, Internet Explorer and iPad Safari.

In addition to being easy to get started, there are a number of other advantages to using a web-based application:

• Software upgrades are done automatically by ProtoHIT
• There is no need for customers to worry about backing up their data—ProtoHIT handles this automatically
• Customers do not have to be concerned about how large their database gets, when they have to upgrade server hardware, or making sure the server stays available—all that is done by ProtoHIT’s hosting service provider, Amazon Web Services (the same group that hosts Amazon’s website)

Designed for Cloud Computing and Mobility

ProtoHIT was designed to be used on smaller screens. This makes it ideal to use with small laptops or with the Apple iPad. The iPad is dramatically cheaper than traditional Tablet PCs ($500 compared to $1000-$2000 for laptop tablets). The Wi-Fi model with 16GB memory is more than adequate for ProtoHIT.

Secure

Each ProtoHIT clinic is assigned its own dedicated virtual server with their own unique private encryption keys for maximum security and better performance. Their system also runs on a real-time encrypted file system providing an extra layer of protection.  This means no one other than the clinic has access to their database. This gives ProtoHIT the same level of privacy as HIPAA requires.

ProtoHIT hosts its software on one of the industry’s most secure and reliable networks, Amazon Web Services (AWS). They maintain the servers, the reliability, the access over the Internet, the power, etc. ProtoHIT customers do not need to worry about any of that. Amazon Web Services is SAS-70 certified, which means they have demonstrated they have an industry approved level of adequate controls and safeguards when they host data belonging to their customers.

Let’s talk. Simply give us a call at 505-798-9666 or email us at info@protohit.com.