LEHI, Utah—Podium, a leading customer communication and payments platform, today announced a new partnership with Sharp HealthCare, one of Southern California's leading health care systems, to modernize their patient communication and feedback operations. Podium is a leading interaction management platform in the health care industry and works with over 90,000 businesses worldwide. In partnering with Sharp HealthCare, Podium's platform aims to help modernize their patient communication channels to manage care with their patients as well as gather online reviews and patient feedback for a full spectrum of facilities and services, according to an announcement from Podium.

"We are excited to provide another way for our patients to provide timely feedback that helps Sharp provide high quality care and service," said Kelly Faley, vice president of Digital Strategy at Sharp. "These reviews also help other San Diegans learn about the exceptional health care experience we provide to patients across the region."

This partnership represents Podium's commitment to supporting health care systems across the U.S., Canada and Australia. Caregivers are able to seamlessly connect with all patients, from those who have recently visited a care site for the first time or long term patients who have a deep relationship with their physician. Podium has also begun to target optical practices as reported by Click.

With Podium's Review & Feedback tools, care sites are able to automatically invite the customer to leave a review via text or the messaging app of their choice. Research shows that fast, and easy to complete review requests are ideal, and result in more accurate feedback. This integration will save caregivers' time as well as increase the number and quality of their online reviews on Google, Facebook, Healthgrades and other key sites.

"Encompassing over 2,700 physicians and 18,000 employees, Sharp HealthCare has been one of the foundational examples of quality care in the San Diego region for almost 70 years," said Omar Nagji, SVP of strategic sales at Podium.

"Those relationships and reputations take time to create. Combining Sharp HealthCare's mission to deliver high quality, patient-centered care with Podium's patient engagement platform, we are able to turn relationships and conversations into actions. This ultimately connects Sharp with patients in a manner that makes sense for them—through a simple text message. The result is the ability to drive enhanced patient outcomes—both clinically and financially."

Patients will immediately be able to leverage this new functionality across all of Sharp HealthCare's physician network in San Diego County. For more information, visit podium.com/healthcare.