Hoag launches new healthcare digital platform on Apple
A mobile application recently released called the “Hoag Compass” has been designed to help the end-user navigate Hoag Hospital’s sprawling healthcare system, its developers say.
Head of product and design Thomas Katavic said the application launched in April on the Apple app store, and there are plans to release an Android version in the near future. The app is first being piloted at the Hoag On-Demand Care & Innovation Center, which opened in a former bank building on Jamboree Road in March.
Katavic said those who use the free app are able to book and schedule their appointments, communicate with their physicians, review health records, check lab results and fill their prescriptions from their phones.
Users who subscribe to the model’s premium plan — Hoag Compass Plus — for $50 a month will also have access to personalized care plans, urgent care support, an on-demand care team and a premiere lounge at the center.
“We are changing the traditional trajectory and mindset of health and wellness from one of episodic care — care only when you need it — to a holistic, uninterrupted and ingrained part of a person’s life,” said Robert Braithwaite, president and chief executive of Hoag, in a statement. “Hoag is known for being an innovative hospital.
“With the launch of Hoag Compass, we are looking forward to partnering with patients who want their health and well-being to be integral to their daily lives. This is an opportunity for our patients to help shape how healthcare is delivered in the future.”
Katavic said Hoag started investing in its digital team about two years ago.
“You see urgent care kind of supplanting typical primary care provider relationships and we’ve also been seeing a lot of technical newcomers like OneMedical and Forward enter the space and they’re really trying to create membership models for primary care,” said Katavic. “The thing with them is as soon as abnormal imaging or bloodwork comes back, they don’t have vertical integration.
“Here at Hoag, we kind of looked at what was going on competitively. We said, ‘Hey, this is perfect. Hoag ranks so highly in so many specialty fields. Let’s bring the two together.’ So, this location and this old bank is basically our innovation center. We’re experimenting with a lot of value proposition ideas here to see what works and what doesn’t before we scale to the rest of Hoag’s primary care ecosystem.”
The center was built using the footprint of the former bank, Katavic said. It’s currently staffed by two physicians but has offices for up to five and has around 10 examination rooms, in addition to a room for virtual visits and an on-site dietitian, exercise and wellness specialists.
The lowest floor is occupied by the center’s digital team, where Katavic says they are experimenting with other means to expand the app to also be used for medical specialists such as cardiologists and pulmonologists.
The center is composed of two buildings. Building A opened last month. Building B is expected to open sometime next year.
Since opening in March, the center has seen around 250 patients and the team reported a little more than 100 people were using the Hoag Compass app as of Wednesday. Katavic did not disclose the number of subscribers to its premium system.
Site manager Joshua Pallen said he felt that the move to digital was inevitable, especially after what occurred with the pandemic.
“From our perspective, the entire reason the team was created two years ago was because of some of the momentum created by the COVID pandemic — the growth of the telehealth companies and the realization by [Braithwaite] that a lot of these players who are digital first don’t have the people behind them,” said Katavic.
“We’re really using digital as a medium to improve health outcomes, not as an end to itself.”
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