Every day in American hospitals, a quiet crisis unfolds. A patient receives their lab results through an online portal — cryptic numbers flagged with alarming red markers, no explanation attached. At 2 AM, they see “H” next to their potassium level and assume the worst. Panic calls flood the after-hours line. Nurses spend precious time calming fears that context could have prevented.
Weeks later, when the HCAHPS survey arrives, that moment of terror becomes a data point. And that data point could cost the hospital millions.
Diondre Lewis built his career solving problems others overlooked. A Duke University computer science graduate with senior roles at IBM, Google, Facebook, Deloitte, and Lockheed Martin on his resume, Lewis founded Wave Rideshare to serve communities the transportation industry had forgotten — homeless shelters, addiction recovery programs, women escaping domestic violence. Today, his company operates across eight U.S. markets, with partnerships spanning Duke Athletics, the Charlotte Hornets, and may other organizations across the U.S.
But it was a conversation with emergency department physicians that revealed his next mission.
“They told me about the disconnect between what happens clinically and what patients remember,” Lewis recalls. “Excellent care can be overshadowed by a single moment of fear or confusion. And that moment shows up on HCAHPS surveys, which determine Medicare reimbursement. It’s a $1.9 billion problem hiding in plain sight.”
The result is WaveCare — a hospital-wide AI communication platform that does what no competitor has accomplished: predict patient satisfaction scores in real-time and automatically intervene while the patient is still in the hospital.
The Physician Brain Trust Behind WaveCare
What distinguishes WaveCare from the crowded field of healthcare AI solutions is the clinical expertise woven into its DNA. The founding physician team represents some of the sharpest minds in emergency medicine and healthcare innovation.
Dr. Harry Kissi, M.D.
Co-Founder & President, Wave Care, Inc.
A board-certified emergency medicine physician, Dr. Kissi identified the core insight that drives WaveCare’s entire architecture: the gap between clinical reality and patient perception.
“Perception beats reality in patient ratings. A patient can receive world-class clinical care, but if they’re scared and confused when they receive their test results, that’s what they remember. That’s what goes on the survey.”
— Dr. Harry Kissi, M.D., Co-Founder & President, Wave Care, Inc.
Dr. Kissi’s analysis quantified the stakes: each 1% drop in HCAHPS scores costs a typical facility approximately $127,000 in Medicare penalties. For a health system operating dozens of hospitals, the cumulative exposure runs into tens of millions annually.
Dr. Kenya Cain, M.D.
Co-Founder & Medical Director, AI Design & Clinical Strategy
Dr. Cain, also an emergency physician, brought the technical frustration to light with a scenario every ER doctor recognizes:
“Epic sends raw lab values directly to patient portals. A patient sees ‘H’ next to their potassium level at 2 AM and thinks they’re dying. They call the ER, tie up our nurses for 20 minutes, and remember that fear when the survey arrives three weeks later.”
— Dr. Kenya Cain, M.D., Co-Founder & Medical Director, AI Design
His insights directly shaped WaveCare’s Result Release Gateway, the platform’s most clinically significant innovation. The Gateway intercepts results before they reach the patient portal, ensuring no value reaches a patient without appropriate clinical context.
The Technical Architecture: AI Built for Healthcare
WaveCare operates across five integrated modules, each addressing a specific failure point in hospital communication:
- AI Concierge
A closed-loop AI assistant that handles common patient and family questions using only verified information from the hospital’s approved knowledge base. Unlike general-purpose chatbots, the Concierge cannot hallucinate or provide information outside approved sources.
- Result Release Gateway
The flagship innovation. Lab and imaging results are intercepted before reaching the patient portal. A provider reviews the clinical data, approves a plain-language summary with appropriate context, and the patient receives their results with explanation — not panic-inducing raw values.
- Patient Journey Tracker
Automatic milestone updates that proactively inform patients and families: “Your loved one has completed their CT scan and is now returning to the room.” No one has to ask. No one has to wonder.
- Complaint Interception System
Natural language processing analyzes every message from patients and families, detecting negative sentiment before it escalates. A frustrated family member sends a message about long wait times — within seconds, it’s flagged and routed to a human for intervention.
- HCAHPS Real-Time Prediction Engine
The crown jewel. A live dashboard predicts each patient’s likely HCAHPS score based on 20+ operational signals. When a patient’s predicted score drops below threshold, the system automatically triggers interventions while the patient is still in the bed.
The Financial Stakes: Why HCAHPS Matters
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey isn’t just a quality metric — it’s directly tied to hospital revenue.
Each year, CMS withholds 2% of all participating hospitals’ Medicare IPPS payments — approximately $1.9 billion nationally — and redistributes it based on performance. Patient Experience represents 25% of a hospital’s Total Performance Score.
| Metric | Impact |
| High Performers | +3.67% Medicare bonus |
| Low Performers | -1.59% Medicare penalty |
| $100M Medicare Revenue Hospital | $5.26M swing potential |
“The problem with current solutions is they’re all reactive. Press Ganey, NRC Health, Qualtrics — they all tell you what went wrong after the patient is discharged. By then, the survey is filled out. The damage is done.”
WaveCare inverts the paradigm: predict in real-time, intervene immediately, improve scores proactively.
Landing in Multiple Health Systems — And Preparing for IPO
WaveCare is currently deploying across multiple health institutions, with partnerships in active development with health systems spanning the Southeast and beyond.
“We’re landing in multiple health institutions right now, and we’re excited about scaling nationally,” says Lewis. “The response from health system leaders has been overwhelming. They’ve been waiting for a solution that addresses the problem in real-time, not after the fact.”
The company is actively preparing for a public offering with plans to take Wave public as it scales its healthcare platform portfolio nationally.
| Metric | Target |
| HCAHPS Communication Scores | +3-5 points |
| Staff Time Saved | 2+ hours/day |
| Complaint Escalations | -50% |
| Post-Visit Follow-Up (72 hrs) | 90%+ |
The Transportation Connection: Completing the Care Continuum
WaveCare doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s the latest platform from Wave Mobile Technologies, which has spent years solving healthcare access problems through transportation.
Wave’s NEMT service, WaveRide, serves hospitals, senior living communities, nonprofits, and schools across the nation. The company holds a 3-year official rideshare partnership with Duke Athletics.
“Transportation is a social determinant of health,” notes Lewis. “3.6 million Americans miss medical appointments every year because they can’t get a ride.”
The integration creates a closed loop: patient arrival (WaveRide), family communication throughout visit (WaveCare), results released with context, discharge coordination, ride home arranged (WaveRide), and post-visit follow-up. One ecosystem. Complete care transition.
The Mission: Healthcare Justice as a Service
Lewis frames the opportunity in terms that transcend revenue projections:
“We call it ‘healthcare justice as a service.’ I started this company serving homeless shelters, addiction recovery programs, women’s shelters — communities that have been underserved by traditional healthcare. Now we serve Duke Athletics and major health systems. But the mission hasn’t changed.”
“Every patient deserves to understand their care. Every family deserves to stay informed. A patient in a community hospital in rural Georgia deserves the same quality of communication as a patient at an academic medical center in Boston. That’s not a luxury — it’s a right.”
— Diondre Lewis, Founder & CEO, Wave Mobile Technologies
The Path Forward
WaveCare will make its national debut at the National Medical Association Annual Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 25-29, 2026 — the largest gathering of African American physicians in the nation.
“There’s no other conference where this many Black physicians are in one place,” notes Lewis, himself a Black founder. “These are the doctors serving the communities that need WaveCare most. This is where we belong.”
For an industry that has long talked about patient-centered care while measuring it only in retrospect, WaveCare represents something genuinely new: the technical capability to actually deliver on the promise. One predicted score at a time.
Company Information
Wave Care, Inc.
A joint venture between Wave Mobile Technologies, Inc. and its physician partners.
| Name | Role |
| Diondre Lewis | Founder & CEO, Wave Mobile Technologies, Inc. |
| Dr. Harry Kissi, M.D. | Co-Founder & President, Wave Care, Inc. |
| Dr. Kenya Cain, M.D. | Co-Founder & Medical Director, AI Design |
Website: wavecare.ai
Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina
Parent Company: Wave Mobile Technologies, Inc.
By The Numbers
| Metric | Value |
| Annual Medicare VBP Withhold | $1.9 billion |
| Patient Experience Weight in TPS | 25% |
| Cost per 1% HCAHPS Drop | ~$127,000 |
| Americans Missing Care (Transportation) | 3.6 million/year |
| U.S. Markets Served | 8+ |
For media inquiries, contact Wave Mobile Technologies media relations.
