Interlace Health Files for IPO: Scaling Electronic Healthcare Documentation Solutions Across 1,100 Hospitals and 1,500 Clinics to Drive Cost Reduction

FormFast, a renowned provider of electronic medical form solutions, announced that the company would be renamed Interlace Health starting in March 2020.

In 1992, FormFast was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. After 28 years of operation, FormFast has gradually developed into an industry leader recognized for healthcare document workflow and forms technology.

Now, they offer a variety of solutions for healthcare organizations, available to clinicians and patients both within and outside the healthcare system, including electronic health records (EHR), workflow management, patient admission, revenue cycle management, electronic informed consent, e-signatures, and on-demand forms. Statistics show that these solutions can save hospitals millions of dollars annually.

Rob Harding, Founder, President and Chief Executive OfficerHe holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Amherst College and an MBA from Iona University. In addition to his role at Interlace Health, he previously served as a Sales Manager at Standard Register.

Rob Harding once stated that he founded FormFast because he understood the drawbacks of paper-based documentation in hospitals.

According to the latest research in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), healthcare entities waste more than $226 billion annually due to administrative complexity.. Paper-based processes can no longer keep pace with clinicians. Rob Harding stated that their solutions offer multiple approaches to address this challenge and help eliminate wasteful spending.

Rob Harding, Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Interlace Health

FormFast (hereinafter referred to as “Interlace Health”) states on its official website: “We are at the heart of modern healthcare, where relationships, environments, and experiences converge.”

By enabling seamless data capture and information exchange among providers, staff, and patients, Interlace Health addresses many critical issues and core challenges in healthcare, improves healthcare workflows, reduces costs and increases profits for clients, enhances patient experience, and boosts operational efficiency.

Rob Harding stated that one of the most critical issues his company currently addresses is accelerating patient payments. Interlace Health has also developed features for automated data integration and report generation.

Interlace Health’s electronic forms are not only feature-rich but also retain the familiar look and feel of paper forms used by healthcare professionals, making the transition to paperless processes easier. This enables scalability to any process in any department, thereby making true enterprise workflow automation a reality.

Interlace Health boasts an efficient, agile, professional, and modern team with a comprehensive and diverse composition, encompassing multiple disciplines including technology, operations, sales, and management.With over 80 employees, Interlace Health targets healthcare organizations and institutions such as hospitals, generating approximately $10 million in annual revenue by providing spreadsheet-based solutions.。

Transitioning from paper-dependent processes to a customized, fully digital system can significantly reduce hard costs, save employee time, accelerate the revenue cycle, fundamentally eliminate errors and compliance issues, and improve the patient experience.

Interlace Health’s enterprise software platform integrates with electronic health records (EHR) and other core systems to automatically generate required documentation, capture data, and accelerate related workflows. With the support of Interlace Health, healthcare organizations have achieved a leap forward in standardization and operational efficiency.

Rob Harding stated in an interview that most hospitals lack a fully functional human resources system. “Therefore, we have created 50 workflows covering areas such as employee evaluations, budget data collection and approval, and applications.”

Interlace Health’s customized system has been deployed in over 1,100 healthcare institutions, boasting a large base of loyal clients and numerous successful case studies, including Alberta Health Services, HCA, War Memorial Hospital, and Artesia General Hospital.

Some of Interlace Health's Clients

Riverside Community Hospital once relied on local businesses to print forms, but soon found it increasingly cumbersome and troublesome to modify, track, and properly manage the growing volume of documents. Consequently, they chose to partner with Interlace Health. Interlace Health has met the needs of Riverside Community Hospital as a growing organization, with statistics showing that approximately 1,500 Riverside employees use the system.

Gayle Snow from the hospital holds Interlace Health’s services in high regard: “Even though they are based in another state, I feel as if they are just downstairs in the lobby—they are always available to answer questions. Over my four years working at the hospital, I have built close relationships with Interlace Health’s form designers and other team members. They catch things I might have missed, and they understand my work habits and style.”

Although informed consent is considered one of the most critical clinical workflows in hospitals, some healthcare institutions have still not achieved full automation. The Joint Commission has identified compliance issues related to informed consent in more than 500 hospitals. Paper-based informed consent processes are the root cause of significant delays, increased costs, and audit failures.

Interlace Health provided the following data: 14% of surgical case delays were caused by missing written informed consent forms; 67% of patients lacked paper-based informed consent forms on the day of surgery; due to delays in obtaining informed consent, a hospital with 500 beds loses an average annual revenue of $265,112.。

Interlace Health: Statistics on the Automation of Informed Consent

To address this issue, Interlace Health developed the first electronic informed consent form, which can be electronically signed via eForms on mobile tablets. To this end, Interlace Health created an app called FormFast Go. Its design takes into account the perspectives of both patients and clinicians, effectively resolving various challenges associated with informed consent forms for thousands of healthcare institutions.

This electronic informed consent form offers the following features and advantages:：

1. Enables instant archiving to prevent file loss, accelerate nursing workflows, and enhance compliance;

2. Integration with electronic medical records to provide a seamless user experience;

3. Personalized customization is available;

4. Dynamic pre-filling for effortless form completion;

5. Contains required fields and validation rules;

6. Features digital date and time stamps;

7. Hyperlinks to educational content can be inserted;

8. Web-based HTML5 architecture, easy to deploy.

Interlace Health has also partnered with Topaz Systems, a leading developer and manufacturer of electronic signature software and hardware. By leveraging Topaz’s more user-friendly, higher-resolution LCD display, the GemView, this strategic collaboration has enhanced hospitals’ capabilities in electronic signature capture and automation.

“We are committed to supporting the latest signature capture devices to provide our customers with the best possible solutions,” said Aaron Vaught, Marketing Director at Interlace Health. “We are excited about the new features offered by the Topaz GemView tablet display, as they provide our customers with more options while streamlining the signature capture process.”

In November 2016, Interlace Health hosted a product launch webinar, primarily aimed at showcasing the latest features of its FormFast Connect suite.

FormFast Connect supports personalized care navigation and documentation workflow solutions, enabling more effective collaboration between patients and healthcare providers throughout the entire care journey.。

Whether used for pre-admission or post-care follow-up, FormFast Connect ensures that patients review and complete the required forms and tasks. Patients can fill out electronic documents and checklists from home to prepare for surgery or subsequent treatment. If documents and tasks are not completed correctly, automated notifications alert healthcare providers so they can verify and ensure patient adherence to care guidelines.

FormFast Connect provides providers with the real-time structured data they need, not only facilitating better care delivery but also helping guide patients in their own care.

FormFast Connect can also be used for automated tasks involving pre-nursing checklists, information dissemination, admission registration, informed consent forms, patient surveys, referrals, and other documents.

By integrating with multiple electronic health record (EHR) platforms, Interlace Health enables seamless data and document exchange across facilities, regardless of the clinical systems they employ. This ease of use also strengthens connectivity within the care community.

Interlace Health Rebranding Poster

“FormFast” no longer adequately reflects the scope of their work and technical capabilities; to accurately represent what they do for their clients, they have decided to rebrand.

“Interlace” means “to intertwine.” Choosing this name also reflects the expanding scope of tasks in the field of technical solutions and the increasingly cross-disciplinary development trends across various sectors.

“We believe that renaming the company Interlace Health presents an excellent opportunity to ensure our brand reflects both our current achievements and our vision for the future,” said Rob Harding. “We have expanded beyond on-demand services to address data interoperability among patients, providers, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders within the healthcare delivery system.”

Rob Harding stated that the name change would have no impact on current business operations or ownership. Interlace Health currently provides services to 1,100 hospitals and 1,500 clinics across China, and will continue to integrate its solutions with electronic health record (EHR) systems from vendors such as Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, MEDITECH, and Nextgen to ensure an optimal experience for its software users.。

In China, the concept of “Smart Hospitals” has been increasingly discussed, with initial construction achievements already realized. In recent years, national policies have continuously promoted the development of systems such as electronic medical records. To build “Smart Hospitals,” companies like Interlace Health are indispensable.

“Smart Clinical” Product Company Directory (Incomplete Statistics)

On Interlace Health’s website, they discuss their strengths and methodologies, offering valuable insights for their counterparts in China:

First, understand the industry market and target clientele. Thanks to its close relationships with a diverse range of healthcare clients and partners, Interlace Health has gained in-depth insights into healthcare workflows, as well as the interactions among healthcare professionals and between providers and patients.

Second, a professional team provides ample expertise. Building the core team is of paramount importance. Several members of Interlace Health’s team have previously worked in healthcare institutions. Their experience offers real-world insights into how hospitals create, manage, store, and retrieve documents. Interlace Health leverages this insight and experience to develop more practical and effective solutions;

Third, work closely with clients to gain in-depth understanding of their operations, prioritize service quality based on client needs, and maintain long-term, stable, and amicable relationships. Interlace Health establishes collaborative partnerships with clients to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies in their workflows and develop tailored solutions. This approach has enhanced Interlace Health’s reputation and driven greater recurring profits.

Fourth, focus on one domain and strive for excellence within it. Interlace Health is exclusively dedicated to healthcare, enabling the creation of superior, intuitive, and effective solutions for the industry, thereby closely aligning customer success with the success of Interlace Health.

Beyond this, there are several other factors behind Interlace Health’s emergence as an industry leader that deserve the attention of entrepreneurs in China.

First, it is essential to closely follow policy directives and select projects that align with national conditions. The development of Interlace Health has been in step with the specific context of the United States. Second, the internal environment of the enterprise itself is also crucial. Interlace Health’s ability to sustain operations for nearly 30 years and emerge as an industry leader is attributable not only to its strong core competencies but also to its proactive corporate culture, excellent working environment, and positive organizational atmosphere. Finally, while maintaining focus on a specific direction, it is important to continuously broaden one’s path, enhance technical capabilities, improve overall quality, and drive continuous innovation.

Interlace Health has continuously adapted to new requirements and transformations, enhancing its technical capabilities. The recent rebranding reflects its renewed image following continuous updates, the expansion of its technological domains, and the ongoing elevation of its value proposition. Meanwhile, Interlace Health actively participates in, and even hosts, technical seminars, proactively pursuing technological exchange and exploration.