Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1383677
11 Executive Briefing Looking to the future, health systems are thinking more broadly and strategically about virtual care Having made it through the pandemic surge, virtual care leaders are now focused on current and future opportunities for their health systems to take greater advantage of digital health. Through virtual care technologies and creative operational design, IU Health is launching integrated behavioral health into all of the system's primary care offices and other ambulatory clinics across Indiana. "Over 100 clinics will now have a virtual behavioral health consult available to them in an acute setting," Mr. Kogan said. Ms. Eckford explained that Wellstar is now focused on designing the future of healthcare by standardizing technology, having the entire health system follow the same workflows, while also looking into a virtual hospital concept. Wellstar is currently defining what a virtual hospital would mean for its system, pursuing tele-sitter and tele-ICU as well as considering a shared services model with many subspecialties. "We are eagerly working to define what hospital at home might mean for us and the best approach for our patients," she said. This month, Wellstar also introduced Catalyst by Wellstar, a global digital health and innovation center created to disrupt how Wellstar delivers care to create better patient and provider experiences. Intermountain is focused on both making the experience far better for patients cared for in the hospital, while also "recognizing that more and more care will be delivered in patients' homes," Mr. Liston said. To improve the in-hospital experience, Intermountain has partnered with Amwell to make the existing televisions inside of patient rooms be the primary telemedicine communication piece for any interaction. To better serve patients at home, Intermountain has an acute care at-home program that has provided care to thousands of patients in their home utilizing video, as well as remote patient monitoring and devices. Making the vision of virtual care a reality requires a technology platform that integrates all aspects of telehealth and with traditional workflows The panelists described how in order to truly make virtual care an integrated and sustainable part of care delivery moving forward, they needed an enterprise-level platform. The most frequently stated requirements for the platform were to be well integrated, including with the EMR and with multiple technologies, systems and devices to make it a part of existing clinical workflows. Integration is also a key factor in making virtual care seamlessly fit into the care experience, allowing patients to see the same doctor in person or online depending on their needs, even as those needs change over time. This allows for relationship- building and consistency whether the care needs are episodic or longitudinal. Health system leaders also expressed a desire for their telehealth platforms to be able to aggregate data and be simple and easy to use, no matter where or how patients are connecting. Mr. Liston described Intermountain's desire: "To be able to care for patients in their homes or in care centers and combining these pieces together to build an ecosystem that is agnostic to where people are." Mr. Kogan expressed a desire for "seamless, agnostic, multifunctional capabilities for patients, providers, and team members to engage." He continued, "being statewide and having patients who engage with us in a lot of different venues, having a common front end and ease of use is absolutely critical." Amwell's Converge platform delivers what health systems are looking for There was consistent excitement about Converge as a virtual care platform that could support health systems' needs. Mr. Liston shared Intermountain's perspective. "We're super excited about what Amwell is doing with Converge. The idea of building an ecosystem that feels consistent to our providers, patients and those who do the work — we're very excited about that." He also complimented Amwell for being forward-looking and "building ways that we can appropriately bolt on other partners to provide a true broad ecosystem for those that we care for." Ms. Neely sees Converge as providing "an opportunity to have an integrated approach for all and making sure that UW Health's care model supports patient choice." She sees the Converge platform as an integrated platform that is a way to smooth the patient-provider-team experience. UW Health views the EHR as a "system of record and Amwell as our system for engagement," she emphasized. Ensuring virtual care success for the future When asked about how they will define success for their digital health strategy moving forward, answers varied and included looking at the percentage of visits that happen via telehealth, measuring the patient experience and provider engagement, and looking at return on investment. One area of agreement however was around the value of creating teams and councils who can help hospitals and health systems prioritize the most important digital health opportunities for this post- pandemic world. Even before the pandemic, IU Health created a virtual care council to provide input and feedback about virtual care opportunities. IU Health also created patient and family advisory councils to make sure that community members had a voice in its digital health plans. "We process all that feedback from providers and patients, and we've morphed that into significant new models of care and continuous improvement opportunities," Mr. Kogan said. Wellstar also previously had a virtual health steering committee. But during the pandemic, digital health became such a high priority that this health system created an executive virtual hospital group that is driving the health system's most important digital initiatives — now and in the future. In addition to these executive-level councils to drive digital initiatives, Dr. Callison called out that a longer-term key to success is leveraging supportive physician champions to advocate for telehealth and to communicate its successes. Mr. Liston summarized the sentiments of Intermountain, and of several other panelists. "Our mission is to help people live the healthiest lives possible, regardless of where they are — if it's in their home, if it's in the hospital — and find the least restrictive care patterns and use technology to make their lives better. That's our commitment." 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, as well as chronic care management and healthy living. With over a decade of experience, Amwell powers telehealth solutions for over 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with over 36,000 employers, covering over 80 million lives. For more information please visit www.amwell.com.