Watershed Health Names Effie Carlson as Chief Executive Officer and Founder-Cardiologist Dr. Chip Grant as Executive Chair and Chief Medical Officer

• Healthcare veteran Carlson to lead company in hyper-growth phase to meet payer and provider demand
• Founder Dr. Grant to focus on advancing Watershed's technology offerings and data insights
• Watershed fights uncoordinated care, a challenge that overwhelms providers and jeopardizes patient health leading to poor outcomes and extreme inefficiencies; costs the US $340 billion in waste annually
• Most national US health plans use Watershed, and thousands of clinical and non-clinical providers across the care continuum for 8.5 million patients

Watershed Health Names Effie Carlson as Chief Executive Officer and Founder-Cardiologist Dr. Chip Grant as Executive Chair and Chief Medical Officer

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Watershed Health, the company driving patient care coordination across the healthcare ecosystem, today announced healthcare veteran Effie Carlson as chief executive officer. Founder, former CEO and cardiologist Dr. Chip Grant will now serve as executive chair and chief medical officer. Carlson is a seasoned healthcare executive and successful entrepreneur who joined Watershed in 2021 as an advisor, quickly becoming interim chief revenue officer and chief strategy officer until her current appointment to CEO. Dr. Grant founded Watershed in 2013 to help the Alabama Gulf Coast region where he practiced. Now, four out of six major US health plans and thousands of clinical and non-clinical providers use Watershed for 8.5 million patients.

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Effie Carlson, Chief Executive Officer (Photo: Business Wire)

“As a physician, I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges of delivering quality, coordinated care in systems that struggle with fragmented communication, outdated or incomplete patient data, and insufficient collaboration across the care continuum. These barriers make it incredibly difficult for providers to offer the best care for patients,” said Grant. “I founded Watershed more than a decade ago to address these challenges in my own community and could not be more pleased that Watershed is now solving it for communities across the country. As the company continues to grow and expand its reach, the demands of leadership have also evolved. Effie’s healthcare industry and business experience, strategic direction, and deep connections make her the right person to lead Watershed into this exciting next chapter of growth and momentum.”

Watershed Health fights one of the healthcare industry’s biggest problems: uncoordinated care, which costs the US roughly $340 billion annually in wasted resources, surpassing costs associated with heart disease or cancer. Uncoordinated care is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality, and can result in duplicate testing, medication errors, delayed or missed diagnoses, fragmented communication, confusion and frustration, increased emergency room visits and unnecessary hospitalizations, difficult transitions from hospital to home, and poor patient outcomes. For instance, 83 percent of post-acute care (PAC) clinicians reported encountering problems around inadequate information from the hospital, and only 58 percent received discharge summaries on or before the day of discharge. Usability shortcomings were reported by 76 percent of hospital-skilled nursing facility (SNF) pairs, noting information was often duplicative, extraneous, or not tailored to SNF’s needs. Notably, Medicare beneficiaries with highly fragmented care had a 61 percent increased odds of reporting adverse events attributed to poor coordination.

“You cannot overstate the value of real-time, actionable and easy coordination across the care continuum, and it's been sorely lacking far too long. Watershed is changing this by providing insights and alignment between stakeholders in a rapid and powerful manner, and I am excited to lead the company in meeting current demand and future adoption by health plans and providers,” said Carlson. “My focus will be on continuing to expand our relationships, drive scale of the business, and execute on our vision to solve uncoordinated care.”

Seasoned Healthcare Leaders Executing Watershed’s Vision to Solve Uncoordinated Care

Carlson brings more than 16 years experience in healthcare leadership, strategy, and business development across the provider and payer sectors. She has held executive roles at leading healthcare organizations, driving growth, operational excellence, and policy initiatives. Carlson founded EJC Consulting Group and she has served in executive leadership positions at Modivcare, PayrHealth, Team Select, and CareCentrix, where she played a pivotal role in shaping business strategy and expanding market presence. Carlson is an active advisor and board member for several healthcare organizations, including the Texas e-Health Alliance, SendaRide, and the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Accreditation Commission® (NEMTAC®). Her extensive experience spans managed care, healthcare technology, government relations, and value-based care, making her a recognized leader and advocate in the industry.

Dr. Grant has over two decades of experience in cardiovascular care, health IT innovation, and healthcare leadership. He is an interventional cardiologist at Ochsner Health in New Orleans and serves as director of the Cardiovascular Center at St. Thomas Community Health Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, the American Heart Association, and the Society for Vascular Medicine. Dr. Grant completed his internal medicine training at Duke University and fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Ochsner Medical Center. He has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications on healthcare delivery, clinical outcomes, and technology-driven solutions, and his expertise spans preventative medicine, chronic disease management, population health, and healthcare technology, with a focus on improving care coordination and patient outcomes.

“I will remain deeply involved in advancing Watershed’s strategic vision with a strong focus on the most impactful applications from a provider’s perspective,” said Grant. “I have worked closely with Effie for years, and her contributions have been instrumental in driving our financial strength, enhancing our platform to better serve stakeholders, and forging meaningful partnerships. She brings invaluable experience and insight to the CEO role as she has sat at almost every seat at the table from a healthcare leadership perspective, and I’m confident she’ll lead Watershed to even greater success.”

Watershed addresses uncoordinated care by serving as the central hub connecting a patient’s clinical and non-clinical providers. It offers a real-time, shared patient record at the point of care, encompassing clinical documents, current health status, social determinants of health (SDOH) such as food, housing, and transportation needs, as well as contact information. This enables providers and health plans to seamlessly communicate, effectively implement care plans, and make well-informed treatment decisions. Unlike traditional healthcare data solutions—such as health information exchanges (HIEs) and electronic health records (EHRs) that often lack timely and actionable insights, Watershed delivers curated, relevant data that providers need, along with secure collaboration tools. Watershed supports a wide range of provider types, including health systems, physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, long-term care, mental health services, hospice, emergency medical services, and community organizations that address SDOH, among others.

“Watershed is positioned to be the linchpin to not only optimize care coordination, patient experience, and industry cost savings, but also to support the success of broader endeavors such as value-based care, quality performance measurements, interoperability mandates, and the development of better digital health tools – all of which critically need the accurate, integrated and timely patient data and workflows that we enable,” added Carlson.

The company has raised $13.6 million in funding led by an investment from First Trust Capital Partners with participation from Create Health Ventures, FCA Venture Partners, Impact Engine, 450 Ventures, LDH Ventures II/Launchpad Digital Health, MassMutual Ventures, Capstar Partners, and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments.

About Watershed Health

Watershed Health is driving patient care coordination across the healthcare ecosystem. With a focus on reducing healthcare costs, improving patient outcomes, and enhancing operational efficiency, Watershed transforms uncoordinated care into actionable workflows and insights, ensuring all members of a patient’s care team are aligned and informed. This comprehensive approach supports proactive and informed decision-making, facilitates collaboration, and drives measurable improvements in quality care and health equity. For more information, visit www.watershedhealth.com, and follow on LinkedIn.

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