Healthcare, Hospital, Pharmacy, Vaccines, Clincics

Nomi Health

Key Takeaways:

• Regulatory Agencies Compliance Streamlined

• States Served: Utah, Florida, Texas, Maryland, Kentucky, Nevada, Missouri, California

• Number of Monitoring Points: 61
• Command Center View: Utah based team reviews all North American cold storage
• Robust customer support during COVID-19 vaccine distribution
• Connectivity Options: Leveraging Wi-Fi and Cellular options 

Justin Reife never thought an investment in a new temperature monitoring solution would win Nomi Health new business. 

He simply wanted to protect the fast-growing tech-hybrid healthcare company from losing business or patient trust due to temperature excursions that could precipitate precious asset loss. 

But when the state of Colorado health department officials called his office, seemingly out of the blue, with a request to re-vaccinate a few thousand patients with the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine, he was even more pleased to have a trusted temperature monitoring solution like Sonicu. 

“The clinic who first administered the vaccine had some sort of temperature issues with the storage of the vaccines, and the people had to get another dose because they weren’t sure the first dose was effective,” Reife explained. 

"We shared with the state our temperature monitoring approach and our commitment, and we won the business to administer these vaccines and got the job done very rapidly, too. 

It drove home how important this aspect of our job is when you see people impacted like this.”

DISRUPTING HEALTHCARE TO DRIVE DOWN COSTS 

Saying healthcare costs are a top concern for Americans and government policymakers is likely a profound understatement. 

A raft of variables have driven costs ever higher in the past several decades with no sign from Washington or state governments of a way to slow the rise, let alone turn the tide back toward greater affordability. 

The founder of Nomi Healthcare isn’t waiting for politicians or the established system to come to the rescue. 

His experience delivering his family’s baby in Utah introduced a new way - eliminating the middle man of insurance companies and allowing patients to save by bundling their procedures with other patients in similar healthcare situations and paying in cash. 

Nomi Healthcare literally stands for No Middleman Healthcare, and their model appears to resonate in the marketplace. 

Nomi began as a software tech company, but the pandemic disruption to the system introduced new opportunities.

Like so many companies during the pandemic, the team quickly pivoted to more conventional healthcare opportunities like clinics, labs and pharmacies. 

“When the pandemic hit, we were in Utah looking for ways to help and serve,” Reife said.

“There was a provider in the state that was going to charge the state like $250 per COVID-19 test and then lab fees on top of that. So, then Nomi came in and said, ‘We can do all your testing for like $25 a test and lab fees’." 

They’ve been rewarded with contracts from state agencies across the United States, including Utah’s largest COVID-19 vaccine distribution contract. 

And they’ve relied on Sonicu to help streamline their compliance and protect their valuable assets like COVID-19 vaccines as part of their growth. 

“We started out as a tech and software company, so we’re very much committed to leveraging tech across our operations to fuel our growth and deliver the best services,” Reife said.

“We very much saw Sonicu as part of that commitment when we decided to use the platform across all our sites and facilities.” 

They are currently teaming with the growing tele-health industry to facilitate faster prescription delivery. 

“We're attacking it from all different fronts as far as where we can be profitable and where we can hit the underserved and people in need of a new way to deliver healthcare services,” Reife said. 

SATISFYING REGULATORS AND PROTECTING PATIENTS:

Local and Nationwide Compliance Simplified 

Nomi was first introduced to Sonicu’s innovative approach to temperature and environmental monitoring after it was awarded a contract in Florida where a county agency already contracted with Sonicu showed them how they were using it. 

“We liked how simple it was to use and how easily we could use it across all of our sites,” Reife said. 

After engaging with the Sonicu team, Reife opted to retire all of his legacy temperature monitoring devices and replace them with Sonicu. 

“We had old data loggers that weren’t connected to the internet, and we had ones that were connected but only with Wi-Fi, and not with cellular and we had some that were a struggle to get tech support,” he explained. 

“So we wanted to get all of our assets on the same platform and make sure it’s on the cloud and gives us connectivity flexibility. Having that cellular option when you’re in a place without Wi-Fi, like some of our mobile clinics, was a huge part of why we went with Sonicu.” 

Knowing they would face regular requests for regulatory reports from federal and state agencies, Nomi wanted more than just an intuitive and affordable solution. 

They required a solution that streamlined these otherwise tedious, cumbersome processes. 

“We had an agency in Texas want to see our paperwork, and it was easy to open the Sonicu software and provide the certifications they needed,” Reife said. 

“We can pull data for calibrations or excursions going back years without having to go through binders or ask our teams to spend time on it.” 

Reife has also been impressed with the ability to keep many eyes on his cold chain assets, regardless of geographical location. 

“We have someone in Utah who can keep an eye on all of our sites. It gives us the ability to make data-driven decisions,” he said. 

“They can literally reach out to Florida and let them know about rising temps so the Florida team can react. It gives us a command center approach.”

Sonicu leadership explained that Nomi is not the only healthcare firm leveraging the affordable solution to gain a nationwide view of their operations. 

"We have several customers with operations across several states if not the entire country that have set up the same single view from our intuitive dashboard that captures all of their locations," said Bryan Mitchell, Chief Marketing Office, Sonicu. 

"Our customer success team helps set this up for customers and shows them how easy it is to add more monitoring points and locations so they can monitor all of their locations as their operations grow and evolve." 

Easy Installation Fuels Cold Chain Expansion: Plug and Play Simplicity 

Sonicu has innovated its hardware significantly to provide customers with an easy-to-install and configure solution.

The Sonicu mobile app has an installation wizard that is prompted by a QR code printed on the Duo communicating box. That means a customer enjoys an installation experience akin to a consumer product like a home router or smart home device. 

While customers can always opt for professional installation via our in-house team or through a certified Sonicu partner, the majority of customers are like Reife and install their own sensors, probes and meters that collect and transmit data to their unique SoniCloud instance. 

“I sold these to our ops team based on the plug-and-play installation, which I can do in just a couple of minutes per device,” Reife explained.

“And I’ve made a bunch of videos to help our teams in the field, so we’re in a good position to be able to expand without too much labor.” 

“I can set it up in two minutes. That was one of the selling points. We were looking at other devices; I had issues with getting people access, managing the system, and other issues that Sonicu doesn’t give us,” he said. 

Jason Young, Chief Operating Officer, Sonicu, said simple installation and configuration is a foundation of the Sonicu customer commitment. 

“We spent years innovating our products and our mobile app to be easy to install and configure with our mobile-app-based wizard,” Young said.

“We want customers like Reife to be able to connect without having to spend too much time on the process and to have a mobile app that ensures their connectivity is strong and ready to perform.” 

He said the Sonicu mobile app is also helpful when he’s on the go. 

“I use the computer more than the app, and I think the only time I really use the app is when I'm completely mobile or in the field and I want to check something, but it’s nice to have it when I’m on the go,” he said. 

Customer Support: U.S. Based and Always Responsive 

Reife said the Sonicu support team had been an integral part of his team’s expansion. 

He recognizes a hardware-powered software solution is going to have the occasional hiccup his team can’t solve and he relies on the Sonicu U.S.-based live support team to manage complex issues he faces. 

"All the support people at Sonicu are really helpful. If they send me an email and I don't reply, they'll follow up and be, "Hey, can we close out this ticket? Do you have everything you need?" 

He’s come to rely on the team as an extension of his program, even knowing his support tech by name. 

"I've had an email thread going with Tony for probably a week and a half just, "Hey, I have all these devices. Can you help me with this, this, this, and this. I don't even think it's a ticket anymore.”

Sonicu is committed to a robust, live customer support experience to ensure every customer receives the maximum return on their investment. 

Innovation to Serve You

Support to Serve Your Team 

Sonicu hosts free, live monthly training that ensures our customers are able to stay fresh on the important features of our system while we demonstrate how new features make the system more robust. 

Scores of customers have participated in the monthly trainings to ensure they received maximum return on investment for their temperature monitoring system. 

• Phone call alerts: The call you want after midnight 
• Connectivity flexibility: Wi-Fi, Cellular or Radio Frequency 
• Data Continuity: Onboard data and power backup for monitoring integrity 

A bird’s eye view of temperatures

One of the lesser known but widely appreciated features of the SoniCloud system is the floorplan view.

It allows users to quickly identify exactly where an issue is in their facility and deploy people to address it promptly. 

New users simply provide Sonicu an image or PDF of their floorplan and our team builds their floorplan view that is then editable for the user, allowing them to shift where monitoring devices are located as the location evolves over time. 

"We recognize that physical locations change over time to as organizations grow and shift and change the way they do business, so we've built our solution to be flexible and easily editable for the end user," said Jason Young, Chief Technology Officer, Sonicu. 

"And we work collaboratively with our customer success team during onboarding to establish the floorplan, ensure the user appreciates how easy it is to move devices on the software to match where they are located in the actual location and then hold our monthly live trainings so new employees can get up to speed on how our system helps them work smarter and be safer." 

American-made products and support: The Sonicu Commitment

Founded in 2008 with a focus on monitoring sound in neonatal intensive care units, Sonicu has evolved into a leading technology provider to some of the most trusted names in healthcare, research and food service with a diverse range of monitoring solutions.

From cold and frozen storage to ambient conditions like room temperature and humidity, Sonicu helps safety and facility professionals monitor critical areas and rooms that are essential to safety.

All of our products are assembled in the United States, and our customer support is based out of our Indianapolis area headquarters.

We are committed to serving all our customers with live phone support and free, unlimited on demand training and live monthly training to drive the greatest return on investment for their temperature and environmental monitoring software.