United Health Services Hospitals is a health system serving South Central New York and headquartered in Vestal, New York. Its virtual wellness program kicked off in July 2019 with the launch of UHS Virtual Walk-In.
Virtual Walk-In is a direct patient program for minor acute complaints. Zipnosis was chosen as the technology platform for its ability to combine an asynchronous adaptive interview process with the transition to video.
Virtual walking care
“This service is staffed exclusively by the same provider that directly staffs the locations,” said Sean J. Britton, UHS digital transformation, health care and systems program manager. to ours. “We obtained URAC’s Consumer-to-Supplier Health Certification for Virtual Walk-In in December 2019 and hold the distinction of being the first healthcare system to receive that designation.
He added: “When the pandemic hit, we used Virtual Walk-In as the primary point of access to care for patients with suspected COVID.
“We obtained URAC’s Consumer-to-Vendor Certification for Virtual Walk-In in December 2019 and hold the distinction of being the first healthcare system to receive that designation.”
Sean J. Britton, Hospital of American Health Services
Over three weeks in March 2020, the virtual healthcare team trained more than 400 primary care, critical care and therapist providers, as well as 800 support staff, on how to use Use Zipnosis for virtual health encounters. In April 2020, more than half of outpatient visits were performed virtual.
“In late 2020 and early 2021, we initiated three new virtual healthcare services,” said Dr John Giannone, medical director of virtual healthcare. “The first is the launch of a platform called Twiage, which enables asynchronous and synchronous remote information collection between our community ambulance services and ongoing hospital emergency departments. our receipt.
“Second is the launch of our Home Hospitalized Care Program, also powered by Zipnosis technology, which is a completely virtual service to both reduce inpatient stay and support transition of care between an inpatient stay and returning home,” he continued.
RPM of chronic disease
Finally, the provider organization implemented a remote patient monitoring program focused on the management of chronic conditions such as hypertension and congestive heart failure.
Since the launch of Twiage, United Health Services hospitals have received an average of more than 10,000 telemedicine-to-ED communications. The Home Hospital Care program has more than 700 patients, and it tracks the decrease in inpatient length of stay and hospitalization rates.
The remote patient monitoring program already has more than 300 patients, and it tracks events like drug changes on provider orders, virtual visits, and in-person visits in response to results. out-of-parameter readings.
“We see our greatest success in using new technology and clinical programs to reduce inpatient stay by providing more clinical care at home.”
Dr. John Giannone, Hospital of American Health Services
United Health Services Hospitals was awarded $562,116 from the FCC’s telemedicine grant program for telemedical vehicles and patient monitoring devices to provide telehealth care to patients at home, many some of them live in poor, rural and deprived areas.
Expanding the use of telehealth
“The majority of FCC funding is used for technology that supports Home Care and remote patient monitoring,” explains Britton. “Sponsorship has the benefit of allowing us to expand the use cases for telehealth broadly and explore different modalities.
“The grant provided the technology infrastructure as well as the operational knowledge to drive our virtual healthcare program as we identify new opportunities to deliver care. for virtual patients at home as well as with hybrid care models that incorporate on-site clinicians supported by telehealth,” he added.
Giannone notes that the biggest problem facing healthcare organizations is hospital capacity.
“So we see our greatest success as using new technology and clinical programs to reduce inpatient stay by providing a wide range of clinical care,” he concludes. than at home.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
