Before the country's Covid-19 epidemic took hold, most health care organizations only dabbled in telehealth because of low reimbursement and clinician preference for in-person patient interaction. Now, the rapid adoption of telehealth has proven immensely valuable for organizations as they try to maintain as much volume as possible while social distancing.
How Covid-19 is transforming telehealth—now and in the future
Across the past few weeks, Advisory Board facilitated 10 virtual networking discussions with physician executives from across the country. One topic that every executive wanted to ask their peers: How are you thinking about telehealth over the long term?
The widespread consensus is that telehealth is here to stay—and is a must-do to remain competitive. But physician executives face a range of physician reactions to telehealth that they must manage moving forward. While some physicians have said they now prefer virtual care to in-person, others have said they'd retire if telehealth becomes the "new normal." This range presents an immense engagement and leadership challenge.
As physician executives navigate competing perceptions of telehealth among the clinical workforce, here are two approaches they're considering to integrate virtual care into the care delivery model, while still accounting for physician preferences.
None of these workflow models are one-size fits all. It's likely that organizations will have to mix and match their approaches based on patient demand and clinician preference for virtual care. But one promising theme among all of them is the flexibility to adapt to both patient and physician preferences in care delivery models.
Of course, preferences can't drive telehealth strategy alone. When thinking about where to invest first, consider how virtual care can support your existing organizational priorities. For example, one organization that is prioritizing access expansion is considering implementing a telehealth option to provide 24/7 on-demand care. Another organization that is prioritizing population health found that patients are more likely to fill out psychosocial screens in advance of virtual visits because they're integrated into the patient portal and can be completed alongside other pre-visit work. This has allowed clinicians to leverage video visits to better address patients' clinical and non-clinical needs.
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