Develop a Sustainable Virtual Care Delivery Model

December 11, 2020
by iPatientCare
Telehealth

More than a decade ago, the concept of Virtual Health encountered several challenges as it evolved to meet the needs of the Healthcare Industry. Subsequently, in step with provider’s concerns, telehealth has advanced to address security, workflow integration, effectiveness in comparison with in-person visits, and reimbursements. Since then, the gap between provider’s needs and Telehealth capabilities has reduced, and providers have steadily started utilizing Telehealth technology in their healthcare settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the widespread adoption of Telemedicine technology over traditional in-person practice. According to a report, in 2019 only 11% of U.S. consumers practiced telehealth, but now active consumers have risen to 46%. Additionally, 76% of consumers are interested implementing telehealth services to minimize in-person healthcare visits.

Virtual health has become common practice and it is vital to adapt to the rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Here are some useful tips to help you understand how you should plan a sustainable virtual care delivery model at your practice.

Evaluating the Factors that Influence the Adoption of Telehealth Technology

Investing in the right telehealth technology requires substantial time, patience, and huge market research. Rushing to adopt telehealth was necessary when the COVID-19 pandemic began and there was little time to perform market research. When faced with this great challenge, providers did an amazing job at adapting to telehealth. But, now what? Will rapid adoption sustain the changing demands of your practice? If not, then it may be time to reevaluate your telehealth solution. The following steps will identify how to implement a sustainable, integrated, and comprehensive telehealth program at your practice:

Identify your patient’s challenges.
Start your research with patient-facing healthcare trends, such as how patients would prefer to receive their treatment.
Identify the demand of your workflow and your healthcare delivery challenges to help you recognize the best strategies for your telehealth program.
Measure your current workflow capabilities and identifying any extra resources needed to integrate telehealth at your practice.
Elicit inputs from all the stakeholders across multiple disciplines, including HR, operations, technical team, and others to ensure all needs are covered.
Identifying the best telehealth vendor who understand your needs and can best help you customize your telehealth program.
Avoid choosing a vendor or a program based solely on one of these two factors: Low price or quick implementation. These factors may compromise the security with your patient’s data. This could lead to increased overhead costs and inconsistent patient experiences.
Select a program with HIPAA compliance that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.
It’s important that you invest in a strategic and scalable virtual care model that integrates with the different medical tools your practice utilizes. For example, Electronic Health Records (EHR), patient portals, etc.
Introduce or implement the program in multiple phases, improving the program with patient feedback. Once it is fully implemented it should be measured for patient and provider satisfaction.
Provide plenty of training and support to your staff. Ensure that your patients receive the best possible virtual experience.
Budget for implementation, maintenance, and periodic upgrade costs. Compare prices among multiple vendors.
Use marketing strategies to extend the reach of your telehealth services.
Understand the regulatory environment in order to understand ongoing costs for reimbursement, licensing, and credentialing.
Build partnerships with payors to expand coverage for telehealth services.

Patients have come to expect virtual visits as part of a continuum of services. If you are able to implement a sustainable telehealth platform, this will give your practice a competitive advantage. Patients will become advocates for your practice, sharing their positive experience of quality, easy-to-use services with others. This in turn can lead to higher patient satisfaction and additional business with heightened outcomes and increased revenue.

It may be time to re-evaluate or adopt a new sustainable telehealth program. iPatientCare Telemedicine Solutions accommodate the ever-changing needs of our clients. Learn more about our personalized systems that seamlessly connect patients with remote healthcare providers, regardless of location, circumstance, or time.