[July 26, 2022]

ADVault and the Health Facilities Association of Maryland Join Forces to Promote Digital Advance Care Planning Solutions

ADVault, Inc., the nation's leader in digital advance care planning (ACP), and the Health Facilities Association of Maryland (HFAM) have announced a new joint effort to bring ADVault's digital ACP solution, MyDirectives for Clinicians^®, to long-term and post-acute care providers across the State of Maryland. At a time when all healthcare providers are looking for ways to enhance the patient experience, operate more efficiently, and attain the highest quality metrics, ADVault and HFAM believe digital ACP is key to achieving those goals.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220726005047/en/

The announcement coincides with the release of a new white paper from ADVault, available for free at https://tinyurl.com/yp3eb3hu, that uses published research to demonstrate how healthcare providers can leverage technology to conduct ACP discussions, document patient preferences and priorities, and access ACP documents and portable medical orders at point of care. Through the effective use of digital ACP solutions at scale, healthcare providers can achieve patient-centered clinical excellence goals while reducing unnecessary and unwanted hospitalizations, procedures, and hospital length of stay (LOS). The result is not only increased satisfaction for the patient and family but significant cost savings, smarter utilization of resources, and a boosting of quality metrics and performance ratings for the institution.

"Partnering with HFAM is the latest step in our growing strategic partnerships nationwide which are centered around educating the market and promoting the importance of digital ACP," said ADVault CEO Scott Brown. "We're excited to work with HFAM to educate the LTPAC community in Maryland about the ROI associated with digital ACP, especially in light of the legislation expanding advance care planning that was recently unanimously passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor. We believe Maryland can and should serve as a model for other states across the nation."

As documented in the white paper, research shows the estimated return on investment for implementing a truly interoperable digital ACP program over a five-year period is 3.7 times in home health agencies, 13.2 times for skilled nursing facilities, and 8.6 times in hospital and healthcare systems. Some of the quantitative and qualitative benefits of digtal ACP highlighted in the white paper are:

• ACP interventions reduce the relative risk of ICU admissions for patients at high risk of death by 37% and can reduce hospitalizations by as much as 26%. Further, ICU length of stay was 5.6 days shorter for patients with an accessible ACP document, a relative risk reduction of 52%.
• ACP documents and portable medical order forms like Maryland's MOLST document help achieve patient-centered care objectives for clinical excellence by focusing on the patients' personal preferences about medical interventions and treatments.
• Healthcare providers benefit from enhanced satisfaction with end-of-life care because the patient and family members understand what to expect and available treatment options; know a digital record is more likely to be located and retrieved when needed; and appreciate that surrogate decisions are consistent with loved one's preferences.
• Digital ACP increases quality metrics and performance ratings by improving the patient experience and satisfaction which, in turn, helps achieve better Star ratings. Higher Star ratings garner more referrals from physicians and the community, as well as increased LOS in post-acute care facilities, which translates into better healthcare service utilization rates.

"For nearly 75 years, HFAM has been working to bring high-quality, high-value solutions to its member organizations, which translates to quality care for Marylanders in need. This initiative with ADVault is certainly no exception," said HFAM President and CEO Joe DeMattos. "ADVault has by far the best digital ACP tools in the industry, and we believe MyDirectives for Clinicians is the perfect solution to help our members improve the healthcare experience for Marylanders, fulfill their obligations under the evolving laws and regulations around advance care planning, and generate accretive, sustainable revenue for their organizations."

All the potential financial benefits, along with the costs of implementing and operating a digital ACP program over a five-year period, have been incorporated into three business case analyses described in ADVault's white paper - home health and hospice, acute care, and in-patient post-acute care. These analyses outline both the costs involved with implementing and operating an ACP program that leverages digital health tools and interoperable cloud-based storage and the potential economic benefits in each healthcare setting. Those interested in receiving a copy of the cost benefit analysis for their industry or a customized business case analysis can do so at [email protected].

About ADVault, Inc.

ADVault, Inc. built upon its award-winning, free MyDirectives^® application to develop the world's first and only interoperable, affordable, end-to-end SaaS solution suite for advance care planning (ACP). Healthcare providers and payers use MyDirectives tools to create and upload ACP documents and portable medical orders and then store advance directive information in the ADVault Exchange™ for easy anytime, anywhere query, retrieval, and sharing. Automatic ACP activity tracking provides time and activity reporting for ACP compliance and program performance metrics. Visit www.advaultinc.com.

About the Health Facilities Association of Maryland

The Health Facilities Association of Maryland (HFAM) is the oldest and largest nationally affiliated long-term and post-acute care association in Maryland. As a leader and advocate for Maryland's long-term and post-acute care provider community, HFAM represents the majority of skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers in the state, as well as assisted living communities and affiliated businesses. HFAM members provide more than four million days of care across all payer sources annually to Marylanders most in need of person-centered, medical long-term, and post-acute care. For more information, please visit www.hfam.org.

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