Becker's Hospital Review

23 Executive Briefing With the entire scope of healthcare changing, telehealth systems have to adapt to support these new and different modalities, Dr. Schoenberg added. Telehealth will help expand provider workflows When it comes to tech adoption, physicians traditionally are not known for changing easily, according to Dr. Antall. "In many cases there's a good reason; they want to make sure it's safe and evidence based," he said. "But pre- COVID-19, there wasn't any one compelling thing pushing physicians toward adopting telehealth like meaningful use did for EHRs." Physicians needed to think bigger about telehealth. While this was happening to an extent prior to the pandemic, it was not enough to support widespread adoption, according to Dr. Antall. From the provider perspective, they are tied to their workflows and are used to doing one thing – going to the office and seeing patients who are lined up from room to room. While this workflow is efficient and secures claims submissions and reimbursements, there is also an opportunity to improve capabilities by expanding workflows. Telehealth allows physicians to see patients more frequently; for example, with patients who have diabetes, the provider can check in on them every month for five or 10 minutes virtually to ensure they are taking their medications and following the care model rather than waiting six months to see them again in person. "Telehealth in workflows is the opportunity to do things differently," Dr. Antall said. "To improve compliance and no- show rates and to meet patients where they are when they have limited mobility, if they have multiple sclerosis or other neurologic phenomena or they're elderly." Despite its widespread use in urgent care, telehealth has grown to accommodate various workflows, from diabetes care to surgical follow-ups. But telehealth is now at the expansion point where it must be presented and made available to clinicians as a customization opportunity and a chance to enhance workflows based on their respective organizations' health and needs. "If we do our job right, the telehealth technology that we offer isn't built on one workflow or another," Dr. Schoenberg said. "It's built to allow clinicians to use tech to reimagine the way they practice medicine with their patient populations. Telehealth has turned that corner where this becomes incredibly important in terms of the trajectory of what this tech can do to the entire industry." Integration is key To help streamline complicated processes and create an easier user experience, telehealth platforms must also integrate with a provider's existing systems. Virtual care cannot be administered through a separate system from the EHR, especially for hospitals, which have spent years perfecting how their EHR behaves to create the best efficiency, culture and quality of care. In addition to EHR integration, telehealth must also be equipped to maintain rules of engagement for both patients and physicians, Dr. Schoenberg said. While a platform such as FaceTime can establish a virtual communication connection between the patient and physician, it cannot discern who is the physician on the call and provide the necessary information needed for the visit. The transaction is similar to FaceTime, but with more security and orchestration so the clinician doesn't have to give the patient their personal phone number and also ensures when the patient engages telehealth that the visit carries the brand of the organization. "When interacting with a patient on a regular physical basis, the physician has in front of them labs, a procedures list and current diagnosis. They understand who else is involved in the patient's care and are aware of the care plan," Dr. Schoenberg said. "There is a lot of information and activities clinicians do while interacting with patients to determine what needs to happen next that doesn't show up in FaceTime." Healthcare has gained a digital arm to the traditional physical way in which it has been done. Physicians will keep challenging their workflows and examining which patients may benefit from virtual visits to better accommodate patient needs. For example, a large, multistate health system developed a telehealth follow-up program for post surgical visits. By incorporating an EHR-embedded telehealth solution, the health system's physician assistants were able to check in on patients who had simple elective surgeries such as knee replacements. By switching to telehealth, patients could remain home and avoid traveling while surgeons were granted more time to focus on other operations. "Thinking bigger means considering population health, outcomes and improving the models in which we deliver care," Dr. Antall said. "Put the tech in the hands of providers and they will innovate if encouraged." n Amwell is a leading telehealth platform in the United States and globally, connecting and enabling providers, insurers, patients, and innovators to deliver greater access to more affordable, higher quality care. Amwell believes that digital care delivery will transform healthcare. The Company offers a single, comprehensive platform to support all telehealth needs from urgent to acute and post-acute care, behavioral health, as well as chronic care management and healthy living. With over a decade of experience, Amwell powers telehealth solutions for over 240 health systems comprised of 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with over 36,000 employers, covering over 150 million lives. For more information, please visit Amwell.com.

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