Virtual Care: Three Keys to Success from Health System Executives

Headlines about large retail corporations ending their virtual care businesses were in the spotlight last month. But, contrary to those headlines, virtual care is thriving — more health systems and health plans than ever before are using virtual care delivery to expand access to care and engage patients. 

We convened virtual care leaders from health systems and payor organizations across the country to discuss what’s working in their communities during our latest virtual summit, co-hosted with the American Telemedicine Association and Eric Glazer from the BrightSpots in Healthcare podcast. Our goal was to better understand what makes virtual care programs successful. Speakers included: 

• Abby Losinski, Director of Telehealth, St. Luke’s Health System

• Douglas Olivo, Director, Community Engagement (SDOH), Tribal and Rural Outreach Services, Oklahoma Complete Health
• Jennie Van Antwerp, Director, Digital Acute Care/ Digital Care Division, OSF Healthcare
• Dr. Saurabh Chandra, Chief Telehealth Officer, University of Mississippi Medical Center
• Dr. Sarah Schenck, Executive Director, ChristianaCare
• Tammy Maher, Lead Nurse Practitioner eHealth At Home, Rochester Regional Health

After hearing from everyone, I came away with three big ideas.

1) Connectivity is THE virtual social determinant of health 

Tammy Maher, Dr. Saurabh Chandra, and Douglas Olivo all identified lack of connectivity as the single biggest barrier to virtual care for patients. 

As virtual care becomes a more critical piece of healthcare delivery, connectivity is becoming a social determinant of health. When offering virtual care programs, health systems must understand where gaps in connectivity lie and tailor their programs to fill the gaps by providing patients who need it with a way to access the internet. For example, Dr. Saurabh Chandra and his colleagues at UMMMC give devices with built-in cellular chips to patients without internet access.

Health systems must also consider how having access to the internet benefits patient outcomes and meet all patients where they are. Douglas Olivo said it best: “We can’t have some people who have access to the whole of all human knowledge and others who don’t and expect the same outcome for both.”

2) Digital navigators and community health workers are essential

Patients aren’t the only beneficiaries of virtual care delivery — providers can use their time more effectively when trained professionals are part of the care delivery process. This way, clinicians can focus on providing the best patient care, and other health workers can support patients along the way to provide the best whole-person care experience.

For example, as virtual care becomes more widespread, so does the role of “digital navigator.”  While there are many things we can automate in healthcare, we still need the compassion, understanding, and nuance humans provide to help support people throughout their care journey. This results in greater patient satisfaction, engagement, and without those, it is difficult to achieve the best patient outcomes.

Another critical role in virtual care delivery is more well-known: community health workers. With many health systems setting up virtual care clinics in community centers and other facilities, community health workers are essential to helping people get the care they need. At TytoCare we have seen the tremendous value community health workers have added to ensure people get the best exams. 

As Dr. Saurabh Chandra puts it, “you make virtual care more efficient for providers when you use digital navigators and community health workers. They help patients troubleshoot the technology so providers can focus exclusively on delivering care.”

3) The virtual care payment model needs to support providers 

For providers, “the biggest barrier to virtual care isn't the technology, it’s payment models,” according to Dr. Sarah Scheck. To support this notion, Abby Losinski adds “compensation models have to support virtual care for it to work.”

Douglas Olivo, Dr. Sarah Scheck, and Dr. Saurabh Chandra all suggest per member per month (PMPM) contracts are the best compensation model because, as Dr. Scheck notes, they “don’t pay [providers] to take office visits, they pay [them] to take really good care of the patients.” 

For virtual care to continue advancing, we need to make sure we’re supporting the type of care that adds value to patients and providers and supports the best outcomes.

Virtual care is not only resilient, it’s also evolving rapidly to meet the needs of patients and providers alike. There is still work to do, but by focusing on these pillars, we can address some of virtual care’s biggest pain points to drive its continued growth and effectiveness in the years ahead.