The Impact of Whole-Person Care
Whole-person care is an approach to health care that looks beyond immediate medical needs to address the full spectrum of factors that impact a person’s life, including environmental, behavioral, and economic needs. This approach recognizes that access to essential resources such as stable housing, food, transportation, and other non-medical factors is critical to achieving positive health outcomes. By coordinating workflows across healthcare and community-based services, whole-person care helps treat individuals holistically.

Unite Us and HealthEdge®: A Partnership Driving Change for Whole-Person Care

HealthEdge® is a leading provider of care management solutions for payer and provider organizations. Both Unite Us and HealthEdge share a common vision: empowering whole-person care through collaboration, interoperability, and strong community partnerships.

Whole-person care requires visibility beyond clinical data alone. By integrating referrals to community-based services directly into healthcare workflows, organizations can move from fragmented care to coordinated action.

Jennie shared how HealthEdge’s Guiding Care® solution for care management supports this vision by equipping payers and providers with the tools to manage complex populations effectively—and how their integration with Unite Us strengthens that capability.

“This integration [with Unite Us] is crucial in connecting members to the right resources quickly and effectively.” — Jennie Giuliany, RN, Senior Director of Clinical Sales Solutions at HealthEdge®

The partnership is a representation of how shared priorities, such as improving the user experience for care managers and effectively connecting members to community resources, can create innovative solutions that keep individuals at the center of care.

The Importance of Data in Addressing Drivers of Health

Jennie highlighted the importance of data for organizations responsible for addressing drivers of health:

“Not only are we seeing the impact we deliver to our members, but through data, we’re now able to demonstrate measurable outcomes and quantifiable impact. So, I think the world is taking notice.”  — Jennie Giuliany, RN, Senior Director of Clinical Sales Solutions at HealthEdge®

This recognition, Jennie explained, is a driving factor behind much of the innovation being seen in partnerships like Unite Us and HealthEdge®. By leveraging data and technology, care teams can bridge gaps in access to community resources for patients and members in need.

FHIR Interoperability Standards: A Game Changer in Healthcare Data

Interoperability was another critical focus of the discussion. Jennie emphasized the role of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) in standardizing how systems communicate:

“Interoperability standards like FHIR are really going to change the game when it comes to making health care data useful. Instead of data sitting in silos, FHIR gives us a standard language so that different systems can actually talk to each other. And because FHIR supports real-time data exchange, it’s not just about sharing the information, it’s about acting on it quickly. When you can do that, you can improve coordination, close those gaps in care, and ultimately drive better outcomes for members.”  — Jennie Giuliany, RN, Senior Director of Clinical Sales Solutions at HealthEdge®

Embedding Care Coordination into Existing Workflows 

Technology only drives impact when it fits seamlessly into daily workflows.

One of the most powerful aspects of the Unite Us + HealthEdge® integration is that care coordination workflows are embedded directly within the Guiding Care solution:

“Unite Us is fully embedded within our platform. Care managers don’t have to jump between multiple systems. As soon as a need is identified, the system will guide the end user to Unite Us to find and connect the member with the right services. And because it’s all tied to the care plan, the entire care team can see what’s happening and coordinate seamlessly, reducing that barrier with different systems trying to connect to each other.” — Jennie Giuliany, RN, Senior Director of Clinical Sales Solutions at HealthEdge®

When referrals to community resources are integrated into the care plan, not treated as a separate process, coordination becomes proactive instead of reactive.

The Power of Partnership in Driving System-Level Change

Throughout the session, both Rachel and Jennie emphasized the power of collaboration in creating person-centered care and achieving meaningful results. 

“Every time we help a member access resources that improve their health, we’re doing more than solving a problem. It’s a ripple effect. It results in better outcomes for members, financial stability for health plans, and greater job satisfaction for care managers. When we connect people to what they need, everyone wins. And that’s the kind of impact that transforms health care.” — Jennie Giuliany, RN, Senior Director of Clinical Sales Solutions at HealthEdge®

Rachel echoed the importance of aligned partnerships that move beyond integration toward shared impact:

“It’s exciting to see partners like HealthEdge leading the charge in helping payers and providers deliver more connected, community-centered care.” — Rachel Eager, Technical Program Manager, Integration Partnerships at Unite Us 

By combining interoperable technology with a shared commitment to improving health outcomes, partnerships like this help build a more accountable and coordinated healthcare system.

Key Takeaways for Healthcare Leaders

There were several key takeaways from the discussion, including:

• Whole-person care requires integrated workflows.
  Embedding workflows that address non-medical drivers of health directly into clinical systems ensures that needs are identified, addressed, and measured in real time.

• Interoperability is essential to scale impact.
  Standards like FHIR enable scalable, secure, and actionable data exchange across healthcare and community ecosystems.

• Tracking outcomes across the care journey is critical.
  Measuring service-specific outcomes, such as whether a food box was received, helps organizations demonstrate value while improving whole-person care for members and patients.

• Strategic partnerships accelerate transformation.
  Technology alone isn’t enough. It takes aligned partners working toward shared goals to drive system-level change.

Healthcare is at a turning point. As payers and providers advance value-based care models, integrating non-medical and clinical data is no longer a differentiator: it’s foundational.

Partnerships like this demonstrate what’s possible when interoperability, embedded workflows, and shared purpose come together to power whole-person care.

Visit https://uniteus.com/ and https://healthedge.com/ to learn more and explore opportunities for collaboration in your own organization.

The post A FHIR-side Chat: How HealthEdge® and Unite Us Are Powering Whole-Person Care Through Seamless Integration appeared first on uniteus.com.

HONOLULU, HI– September 29, 2025 – The Queen’s Health Systems announced a three-year contract with Unite Us, the nation’s trusted technology partner for integrating health and community-based care, to support Queen’s Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) initiative, focusing on expanding capabilities for universal screening, targeted interventions, and addressing needs across the community.

Through this agreement, The Queen’s Health Systems will utilize Unite Us’ closed-loop referral system to connect to a network of community-based organizations. This will facilitate comprehensive tracking of a patient’s whole-person care journey, from initial screening to service delivery and outcome measurement. The data and insights gained are intended to inform Queen’s population health strategies, allowing for more targeted interventions and resource allocation to address the most pressing health-related non-medical needs within the diverse communities they serve.

“At The Queen’s Health Systems, our mission is to provide quality health care to improve the well-being of Native Hawaiians and all of the people of Hawaiʻi,” said Dr. Whitney Limm, The Queen’s Health Systems Executive Vice President of Clinical Integration & Chief Physician Executive. “Selecting Unite Us expands this commitment through an innovative digital platform to efficiently identify and address patients’ needs by community resources, while tracking progress and outcomes to ensure high quality, coordinated care.”

The agreement will support The Queen’s Health Systems to implement standardized SDoH or non-medical screening across both inpatient and ambulatory care settings. A cornerstone of this initiative is the commitment to support any positive SDoH screening, and patients are meaningfully connected to appropriate resources through Unite Us’ bi-directional platform. This integrated approach aims to improve care coordination and efficiency, empowering care teams to more effectively intervene on the social factors that impact health outcomes.

The initial year of this three-year contract will focus on integrations such as SMART on FHIR, screening ingestion, and an automated resource list. These integrations will support interoperability with Queen’s existing electronic health record (EHR) system, Epic, providing clinicians and care coordinators with a native Epic experience. This enhanced integration will give Queen’s care teams access to referrals across various departments, offering an understanding of initiated, closed, or pending support. By streamlining workflows and providing readily accessible information, the agreement aims to focus on direct patient care.

“We are honored to work with The Queen’s Health Systems, a legacy-driven organization with such a profound commitment to its community’s health,” said Taylor Justice, President and Co-Founder of Unite Us. “Our platform is designed to bridge the gap between healthcare and community-based services, creating a cohesive ecosystem where individuals can access the full spectrum of support they need. By supporting Queens’ Epic system, we aim to streamline workflows and provide critical data insights that will allow Queen’s to deliver person-centered care and impactful change in the lives of their patients.”

For more information about the Unite Us and The Queen’s Health Systems contract and its impact on community-based organizations, including how non-profit CBOs can use Unite Us’ platform free of charge, please visit uniteus.com/contact/.

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