Blockit recently enabled a partnership between Houston Methodist and local Independent School Districts to ensure that the Houston Methodist Sports Medicine program continues to pave the way towards simplifying the continuum of care for every kind of patient. By using Blockit’s digital care coordination platform, Houston Methodist will empower each school’s athletic personnel to schedule appointments for injured students with their preferred providers in realtime.
“High school sports are so important to our home-state of Texas”
— JAKE MCCARLEY, BLOCKIT CEO
High School sports are a big part of Texas culture, and the hardest part about them is how often students get injured. When this happens, students need access to quality care quickly, but they often instead experience long wait times and complicated scheduling processes, which adds extra stress for themselves, their parents, and the school administrators. Thankfully, Houston Methodist recognized the importance of caring for these local athletes, but the highly manual process was cumbersome, frustrating and limited.
But not anymore.
Empowered by Blockit’s user-friendly scheduling platform, athletes, parents, and staff no longer have to scramble through the complexity of care coordination or be left wondering about the status of the athlete’s care journey. Athletic trainers can now schedule the right appointment for the athlete at any time, day or night. Blockit’s search filters help trainers narrow their results until they find the perfect appointment based on the soonest or most available provider, the provider’s proximity to the student’s home, and the provider’s accepted insurances. These features enable the trainer to guide the athlete to the best sub specialist at the most convenient time.
The patient-athlete journey has been simplified, and with just a few clicks, the student has an appointment booked before the athlete even leaves the field. All the necessary “paperwork” is digitized and sent directly to the physician – including images of the injury and descriptions from the athletic staff.
“Our athletic trainers have been very pleased with how easy and efficient the Blockit platform has been.”
— KEVIN PATTISON, NORTHERN REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR ORTHOPEDICS & SPORTS MEDICINE FOR HOUSTON METHODIST
“High school sports are so important to our home-state of Texas,” says Blockit CEO, Jake McCarley. “But it’s tough to see kids get hurt and know that the school, the athlete and the parents have to go through the complex process of scheduling an appointment with a specialty provider. That’s why we were so eager to see how Blockit helps these kids get access to Houston Methodist’s great care more quickly.”
Kevin Pattison, the Northern Regional Administrator Orthopedics & Sports Medicine for Houston Methodist is also excited about the partnership. “We currently cover 19 schools and sometimes scheduling athletic injuries can be a nightmare,” he says. “Our athletic trainers have been very pleased how easy and efficient the Blockit platform has been. We have basically given them access to our EMR scheduling, without actually giving them access to our EMR, so they can schedule an injured athlete any time.”
The Houston Methodist Sports Medicine Blockit initiative began with Tomball ISD on October 31st in time for their football game and launched at Klein ISD on November 6th. Within the first few days of Blockit going live, seven great local athletes have already been referred for care. Additional School districts will be added throughout the year.
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