Purple Binder’s ‘Yelp for social services’ keeps referrals from disappearing into the void

One huge blind spot in today’s health systems is the ability to know what patients do — and don’t do — after they leave the hospital or clinic. This problem is being addressed in a number of ways by new digital health startups, but the fruits of that labor remain largely unrealized.

A couple of University of Chicago computer science graduates, Declan Frye (2010) and Joseph Flesh (2012), are tackling an especially difficult aspect of that problem. Health systems often refer needy patients to outside social services agencies but don’t have much of an idea if the patient ever made it to the referral.

Frye and Flesh’s startup, Purple Binder, started out by offering an app that lists a smorgasbord of social services (mental health clinics, job training, food pantries, literacy classes, etc.) offered in and around Chicago, as well as a way for users to grade the services. It was indeed a “Yelp for social services,” as some in the media called it.

It’s now in the pilot stages of a new program called “Closing the Loop” with the Chicago Department of Public Health and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which uses a system of scanners and tablet computers to give hospitals and health clinics a way of verifying that patients made it to social services referrals, Flesh told VentureBeat. It also provides a feedback loop in which data was transmitted back to the health system about the quality of the services patients were receiving, he said.

With such an improved view of what patients do after they are referred, health providers can make sure patients get the services they need to stay healthy, keeping them away from expensive emergency room visits or hospital readmissions.

Now Purple Binder has expanded the effort outside Chicago. It’s helping hospitals and clinics in parts of California’s Coachella Valley keep tabs on their social services referrals, Flesh said. The startup is also working with the city of Pomona, Calif., to inform residents of available social services.

Flesh said Purple Binder had been searching for progressive health departments and health providers to partner with, and found the right partners in Southern California. The startup plans to expand to several more sites in the new year.

Flesh said his startup, which employs just five people today, is already cash-flow positive after being “mostly bootstrapped” into existence by the founders. However, Flesh said the startup is considering raising a round of venture funding in 2015 to help bring its service to more cities in the U.S.

Purple Binder has some fans in high places. Here’s Department of Health and Human Services chief technology officer Bryan Sivak talking about the startup:

Purple Binder has recently joined the Chicago health-focused incubator MATTER.