Firm finds national niche with medical videos
Acquisition increases library of patient education topics
If a hospital asks you to watch a video on what to expect when having knee-replacement surgery or a video on breastfeeding after having a child, there’s a good chance that those videos were produced by a small company in Pewaukee.
The Wellness Network started as a service offered by GE Healthcare that broadcast training programs for hospitals. It expanded into educational programming for health care professionals and then educational programming for patients, first as part of NBC Universal, a GE division at the time, and later as a private company.
More than 2,300 hospitals now are among the Wellness Network’s customers — and that number jumped to about 3,200 last week when the company acquired Milner-Fenwick, one of the nation’s largest producers of patient education videos, for an undisclosed price.
“It significantly expands our library,” said Dave Ross, chief executive of the Wellness Network.
Milner-Fenwick, based in Hunt Valley, Md., has a library of about 690 videos.
The combined companies will have more than 1,000 videos on topics such safe sleeping, depression and anxiety after surgery, and treating high blood pressure.
The programming is distributed to hospitals by satellite or the internet and can appear on the Wellness Network’s Newborn Channel, Patient Channel or other channels through inhospital TV networks.
The programming also can be seen through computers, tablets and mobile phones.
It’s a growing market as hospitals and physicians increasingly incorporate videos into care plans for patients.
“Everyone is recognizing the need to engage patients in their own care,” Ross said.
Patients may be asked to watch a video on how to avoid falling while being hospitalized, for instance, or on how to keep track of their medications.
Milner-Fenwick produces its own videos, Ross said, and the acquisition gives the Wellness Network, which has relied on freelancers, its own in-house production team.
With the acquisition, the Wellness Network has about 70 employees, including 25 in Pewaukee.
The acquisition is the second — the first was Bundoo, a parenting website — since Interactivation Health Networks LLC, which does business as the Wellness Network, was bought in December 2015 by Wafra Partners LLC, a private equity firm based in New York, and by Patrick Clifford and James “Hal” Higby.
Ross also is a stockholder in the company.
The Wellness Network was sold by Matthew Davidge and Joe Covey, two New York investors who bought it from NBC Universal in 2010.
“Wafra Partners sees tremendous potential to do more in the patient education and engagement industry,” Eric Norfleet, a managing director at Wafra Partners, said in a statement at the time of the acquisition.
The gradual move toward changing the way hospitals and doctors are paid — commonly described as paying for value
rather than individual services — is expected to work in the industry’s favor.
Hospitals and doctors are beginning to be paid fixed amounts for an episode of care, for example, or to provide care for a set group of patients.
Hospitals also are now penalized by Medicare for high re-admission rates.
One result has been an increased emphasis on patient education and managing patient care, and the Wellness Network’s educational programming meshes well with that focus.
A link to an educational video for instance, can be sent to a patient who has diabetes or who has had a stroke, as well as to the patient’s family.
“It is making sure that the patient can access the information when and where they need,” said Meg Miller, vice president of marketing
and programming at the Wellness Network.
Hospitals also can customize the programming for their in-hospital TV networks — playing to what Miller noted is a captive audience.
The company also owns Logicare Corp., a company based in Eau Claire and bought in 2013. Logicare sells software for discharge instructions, secure patient communications and other tasks. The software can be incorporated into a system for electronic health records for discharge instructions, secure patient communications and other tasks.
The discharge instructions — which can include the Wellness Network’s programming — can be sent to patients from the system for electronic health records.
The Wellness Network works with American Heart Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, American College of Physicians and other organizations to develop its programming.
The videos — which
once were 20 minutes in length — are three to six minutes.
“They have to be short and focused now,” Ross said.
Production costs also have fallen with the advances in technology — the company used to spend twice as much 15 years ago for the same amount of content as today, he said.
The videos have to be updated frequently, but that can be done without having to produce an entirely new video.
The Wellness Network’s focus now is on expanding its presence in outpatient surgical centers and physician offices. It also plans to focus on programming designed for managing patient care and for managing patients with chronic diseases.
Last month, it announced a partnership with Care 24/7, a company based in Knoxville, Tenn., to integrate its educational videos into physician care plans for Medicare patients.
“That is the future,” Ross said.