How wellconnected creates a social care flywheel

wellconnected stems from consulting projects where healthcare industry experts were bringing their expertise to social care agencies, but often finding them entrenched in their own silos.

The agencies made referrals to each other on a word-of-mouth basis. They tracked their activity on pen-and-paper or, at best, excel spreadsheets. There were no records of care, so there was no context to treat individuals better the next time. Reporting up to funding agencies was inefficient and often opaque.

The wellconnected team set out to build a software platform, allco, to create these capabilities while also drawing the stakeholders closer together. allco now boasts many useful tools, including case management, customizable intake forms, a digital network of regional providers for referrals and case records (the social care equivalent of electronic medical records).

But the enterprise suite is only part of the reason why we believe wellconnected is poised to make a meaningful difference in the way social care is planned, delivered and recorded.

Another important element is the way wellconnected will grow within a community, starting with a funder (think government entities, foundations, or insurance providers) and a collection of nonprofits, then pulling more and more related stakeholders into that orbit until it is a region-wide operating system that ensures collaboration, transparency and efficiency.

The wellconnected flywheel starts with a social services funding entity which drives activity in its own network of nonprofits (a few examples include Independent Health in the Buffalo region; Monmouth County in New Jersey; and the United Ways in West Virginia). This system is initially implemented in a limited way amidst the funder and a small group of those agencies, which creates the initial infrastructure in a region.

As wellconnected grows within the ecosystem of that one funder, it pushes adoption of the platform into more and more agencies. This creates a de-risked network which new funders can join at low risk, with many of their existing clients on allco, while also pushing the platform to more nonprofits. The more allco is adopted, the more collaborative and efficient a regional social care ecosystem becomes. As the value goes up, the cost comes down.

It’s also important to note that broad adoption of allco leads to shared case management, a key facet of improving care on the ground. Right now, an individual can show up to a homeless shelter, a food bank, a behavioral health clinic or dozens of other agencies, and often the best they can hope for is that someone remembers them. But with allco, interactions with community members are recorded, tracked and shared with other members on the network, providing crucial context for the care that is delivered.

allco’s digital social care network (dSCN) also breaks down the silos that exist between nonprofits. Our network can show one community-based organization where all the other service providers are in a region. It could be the difference between sending someone on a five-minute walk or telling them they need to go to a different city, town or county.

The thing about flywheels in this context is that it’s difficult to create widely applicable software systems, and equally hard to crank a static system into something circular. But once it starts turning, it accelerates on its own, which is what we’re already finding in Western New York and New Jersey. West Virginia is a relatively new territory for us, but we fully expect to replicate this dynamic with our partners West Virginia 211 and the United Ways.

Does this interest you? Please reach out to Stephen Butzler at stephen@wellconnected.com for a demo or visit our website here.