As an RN/PHN, when COVID hit, I took a sabbatical from my other company to return to bedside care. Nursing shortages in the Unites States were severe, and I wanted to help. During that time, I kept hearing the same frustration from nurses and physicians: how difficult it was to discharge patients safely and efficiently.
To understand the problem firsthand, I signed up as a “local inpatient case management traveler.” My first assignment was a busy county hospital serving patients with complex medical and social needs. What I witnessed shocked me - case managers and social workers were still using fax machines to send referrals (avg of 42 pages!) to post-acute providers like skilled nursing facilities (SNF), home health agencies, and DME vendors. Faxes failed often, wasting hours of clinician time. I remember thinking, I’ve become the most expensive fax machine operator in the country. Absolutely not "top of license" for an RN with decades of experience, and multiple certifications.
My next contract was an academic Level I trauma center, and just as troubling. I still used a fax machine, and the case management/social work staff used a solution that was little more than a very expensive HIPAA-compliant data exchange hub. Despite having an outdated technology and user experience, every provider had to pay subscription fees to connect. Many post-acute providers opted out, so the fax machine remained relevant.
Again, I experienced how poor the patient and family engagement process for shared decision making compared to non-healthcare solutions such as Airbnb, VRBO, etc. Providing a list of SNFs and having a family member take time from their busy lives to tour in person resulted in discharge delays and thus non-accretive days.
Clearly the Quadruple Aim wasn’t being met - patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction, reduced cost, and Improved quality.
These experiences convinced me that discharge planning was stuck in the wrong century. I chatted with my thought partner, and we decided it was time to take action.
We started Talamel Health Technologies as a clinician-led, patient first company. We assembled a Clinical Advisory Board, with MDs and RNs from different health systems to identify needs impacting patient care. Rather than digitizing old processes; we redesigned them around the realities of modern care.
With GenAI-driven development, ideas become working concepts within hours and usable solutions within days. It’s near-real-time concept-to-market, rooted in the day-to-day challenges of frontline professionals.
The result is a multi-sided marketplace platform that brings together patients, families, and their care teams. I like to think of it as "Airbnb for post-acute care:" a tool that helps people discover, compare, and engage with the right providers based on their needs, preferences, and insurance coverage.
Our platform goes beyond data exchange. It enables hospitals to support patient choice, accelerates discharges, and reduces wasted bed days. Patients and families feel empowered; case managers and social workers can operate at the top of their licenses rather than chasing faxes.
When the right patient selects the right provider for the right reasons at the right time, everyone wins. Satisfaction rises, readmissions drop, and the health system saves both time and money.
As a licensed clinician and technology entrepreneur, I’ve seen firsthand how broken discharge planning can be, and how transformative it feels when you fix it. We have a tremendous opportunity to bring empathy, efficiency, and intelligence together in one process, enabling case managers and social workers to fully utilize their skills, while practicing with empathy.
At Talamel Health Technologies our mission aligns with the Quadruple Aim:
1) Improve patient satisfaction
2) Improve provider experience
3) Reduce cost (and waste of non-accretive bed days)
4) Improve population health
Discharge planning doesn’t have to feel like a relic from the fax era. With the right technology and a clinician’s perspective, it can become a seamless, patient-centered experience that fulfills the promise of the Quadruple Aim.