Why We Backed DocNow

Waterline is excited to publicly announce our partnership with DocNow, a Washington-based company that provides electronic health record (EHR) and wound care management solutions for post-acute providers.

Here is some rationale for why we backed the DocNow team:

Market Opportunity

The US post-acute market is expanding due to a growing geriatric population and increase in surgical procedures related to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases. Post-acute facilities provide high touch support that patients need after hospitalizations, enabling an extension of care while keeping hospital beds free and reducing readmission rates.

Despite the importance of post-acute care, in a 2023 American Health Care Association (AHCA) survey representing over 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities, more than half of respondents said they are operating at a loss and may not be able to continue operating for more than a year at the current pace. Persistent staff shortages caused by physician burnout is the primary driver, leading these facilities to turn away prospective patients.

A major driver of provider burnout in these facilities is the administrative burden associated with patient information management and billing. Typically, post-acute facilities hire physicians who are independent from the actual facility. These physicians must use the medical record system that the facility pays for. However, the legacy post-acute medical record systems are designed for the facility rather than the physician, resulting in excessive amounts of manual data entry and inefficient provider workflows.

Product

DocNow was designed by a post-acute physician, Kashif Saeed, who was frustrated with these inefficient workflows and wanted an EHR built to fit the specific needs of each provider’s practice.

DocNow offers assistive note generation, customized templating, and automated order generation. By eliminating manual data collection, DocNow reduces write-offs and captures more patient encounters while ensuring compliance. In addition, DocNow seamlessly integrates with existing facility medical record platforms to maximize automation and accuracy.

DocNow has also developed a mobile application specifically for wound care providers to assist with wound measurement and monitoring, which integrates with its core EHR platform.

The result is more clinical time spent with patients, higher practice revenue per facility, and better provider satisfaction. Across its 2,000 facility customers, on average the DocNow platform has been able to eliminate over 10 hours per week of administrative work and dramatically improve physician satisfaction.

Capital Efficiency

Similar to any burn multiple or efficiency score calculation, one of Waterline’s north star metrics when evaluating an early-stage healthcare company’s capital efficiency is Total Revenue / Total Capital Raised.

Since launching in 2019, DocNow has spent less than $1 million of capital to build the product, sign customers, and deliver value. By using revenue and cash flow to fund operations, the DocNow team has proven product / market fit without creating a substantial preference stack. This capital efficient mindset has positioned the company for future success and exit flexibility as it begins investing in growth.

This round will help accelerate the company’s expansion across the post-acute space, and continued growth within the wound care market. We are excited to partner with the DocNow team as it strives to improve workflows and reduce administrative burdens in post-acute settings!