New partnership will fuel growth for startup Community CareLink and better health outcomes across America
Kansas City, Mo. — Healthcare software technology startup Community CareLink (CCL) has attracted investment from Paul Black, formerly the CEO of Allscripts and COO of Cerner, and a longtime healthcare technology executive. Black recently became an equity shareholder in CCL and joined its board of directors.
His experience leading high-performance teams and scaling operations internationally will benefit CCL and its nonprofit clients as it expands into new markets. This partnership comes at a time when discussions around mental health issues and social determinants of health (SDoH) are on the rise across America, causing communities to search for ways to better understand and positively impact them.
“Paul and his investment will help fuel new growth, from both a financial and expertise perspective,” said Dale Gray, CCL CEO. “With decades of industry leadership, including having successfully grown billion-dollar publicly traded healthcare technology firms, Paul brings a vital skillset to our organization. We’re thrilled to have him on board so we can help more community-based organizations (CBOs) help more people.”
As the name implies, Community CareLink connects people-serving nonprofits and improves a community’s population health through an intuitive, cloud-based platform. The case management software designed by case managers, for case managers, links together everyone in the social safety net – nonprofit agencies, shelters and rehabilitation centers, municipal departments, police, first responders, healthcare providers and patients across entire communities.
Other benefits of the CCL platform include:
Streamlined access to services;
Coordinated continuum of care;
Standardized services; and
Robust data and reporting used to improve the quality of services, advocate for resources, and report back to funders and governing bodies.
CCL addresses SDoH – those non-medical factors, like income, education level and food insecurity, that affect well-being and quality of life – to create greater health equity. That is, CCL connects opportunities for more people to access and attain their full health potential regardless of social position.
“The difference CCL makes is powerful. They really are transforming the way we care for our neighbors with a vast existing infrastructure of community-based organizations doing brilliant and wonderful work,” Black said. “In most cases, CBOs are a person’s last hope. The ability to affordably and easily connect these resources is critical because patients ‘in the system’ require assistance from several different agencies. The more CBOs know about each patient, the more effectively they can refer, document and communicate with each other to coordinate care, and the better everyone fares. This lessens the likelihood that anyone falls through the cracks, which is the essence of community-based, individually coordinated care.”
Examples of how CCL positively impacts population health include enabling first responders to take unhoused individuals with non-medical emergencies to residential programs instead of hospitals, saving millions of dollars and increasing the odds of improving their situations. CCL also makes it possible for police officers to easily involve social services with a single point of contact, in real time, when they’re on the scene responding to 9-1-1 calls.
About Community CareLink
Initially a nonprofit itself, Community CareLink (CCL) became a privately held firm in 2018. Its software as a service (SaaS) helps people-serving agencies and community organizations raise the level of consistent care for individuals in need. Built by case managers, for case managers, Kansas City community and nonprofit leaders spearheaded the technology’s development. The powerful, cloud-based portal is a community information exchange, electronic health record and practice management system in one, creating a central location where organizations can report, track and follow up on the valuable services they provide.