Jaspr Health Extended to Primary Care with National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Funding; Allina Health Partnership Expands Emergency Department Partnerships
October 13, 2021, Seattle, WA – Jaspr Health, the first scientifically-validated, suicide-specific digital care platform, today announced the expansion of its pilot program in Emergency Departments (EDs) via a partnership with Allina Health, along with the expansion of use to primary care settings via a $2.1M grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The company’s tablet and mobile applications bolster capacity and speed recommended, evidence-based care – assessments and interventions that have been rigorously evaluated and shown to produce positive impacts – with its automated assistant’s on-demand guided assessments, crisis stability planning, hope-inspiring videos of survivors with lived experiences and a library of coping skills.
Staffing shortages across the nation have made it difficult for EDs and primary care clinics to provide suicide care to those in need. Today, the lack of qualified ED staff can delay care of a person in suicide crisis by as much as 12 hours. Even before COVID, behavioral health emergency care took three times longer than other health emergencies. When finally received, this care is often below-standard for patients and expensive for healthcare systems.
“EDs have seen an overwhelming increase in behavior health emergencies over the last decade – a staggering 14 million per year and growing at 12 percent. Exactly as with a stroke or heart attack patient, the immediate, and the right emergency care, can save the life of a person in suicide crisis,” said Dr. Kelly Koerner, Jaspr Health CEO and founder. “Jaspr was designed to support providers and enable them to reliably deliver the right care quickly. We are thrilled to extend our success in the ED to primary care and expand features to help people with problem drinking.”
Jaspr’s Solution
Jaspr Health is patient-endorsed, peer-reviewed and rigorously tested. The applications were designed by suicide science experts, people with lived experience, and leading health systems to help save lives by providing immediate, compassionate suicide care. Using standardized, evidence-based protocols to help stabilize patients, including suicide risk assessments and crisis stability planning, hospitals can decrease downstream costs and ensure continuity of care.
With integration into electronic health records, workloads are decreased and patient engagements can be optimized and adjusted to improve quality. The solution also offers ED staff the just-in-time training critical to building confidence and skill sets to effectively help patients in crisis. Overall, Jaspr Health aims to improve the patient experience, while helping health systems reduce risks and costs, without any increased burden on healthcare providers.
In National Institute of Health (NIH) funded clinical trials, Jaspr outperformed traditional care in the ER, enabling increased access to evidence-based, suicide-specific interventions, increased ability for patients to cope with suicidal thoughts, decreased patient distress and agitation, and increased reports from patients of learning skills to regulate their emotions. The solution is currently being piloted in nearly 20 EDs across the nation, and will expand testing into primary care clinics as well as to individuals with alcohol use disorders, often associated with both an exponential increase in suicide risk and interference in suicide prevention efforts.
For more information on the features and benefits of Jaspr Health’s tablet and mobile applications, click here.
Jaspr Health Partnerships
The company’s new partnership with Allina Health will help reduce the growing rate of suicide throughout the Minnesota and Western Wisconsin area. This five-year partnership will include the use of Jaspr Health for people acutely at risk for suicide and seeking psychiatric crisis services from one of Allina Health’s 12 EDs.
The grant from NIAAA generates the funding necessary for Jaspr to extend trials into primary care clinics, and expand to include patients with alcohol use disorders, which result in a tenfold increase of suicide risk and interfere with suicide prevention efforts.
These announcements follow on the heels of its relationship with the Zero Suicide Institute to integrate awareness, education and support to help save lives. This Fall, the organizations will jointly launch new educational programs and content for health systems highlighting how digital technology can significantly improve the standardization of compassionate, personalized and evidence-based care.
About Jaspr Health
Headquartered in Seattle, Jaspr Health is a trusted digital suicide care platform with automated, evidence-based protocols that improve patient experience, optimize provider care and empower health systems to reduce risks and costs, while ultimately saving lives. The company’s solutions are patient-endorsed, peer-reviewed and rigorously tested, and designed by suicide science experts, people with lived experience, and leading health systems to help save lives by providing immediate, compassionate suicide care. For more information, visit www.jasprhealth.com.
Press Contact
Marcus Kako
marcus.kako@jasprhealth.com
707-637-6797
