Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Michigan, began developing a virtual care strategy in October 2019 – before the launch of COVID-19 – in the hope of leveraging the technology as an aid to care. patient and organizational strategy, rather than as a strategic stand alone in and of itself.
Sparrow’s original goal was to roll out virtual on-demand urgent care to increase accessibility and provide another door into the health system. It plans to launch in July 2020, using Amwell as a technology and services provider for virtual urgent care with an estimated 1,500 visits in its first year.
Telehealth packages change quickly
But then, COVID-19 hit and plans quickly changed.
Patrick Sustrich, director of retail healthcare at Sparrow Health System, said: “With most of our operations closing at the end of March 2020, we needed an immediate solution that didn’t work. Can’t wait until July.” “What we thought would take months took us days, and we leveraged Epic EHR’s ability to support scheduled and on-demand video visits using Zoom for Healthcare and our own suppliers.
“In the first month, we surpassed our one-year goal of 1,500 virtual visits – by phone and video,” he continued. “The benefit of this self-employment is that it allows our providers to access patients’ medical records, chart them directly, and accept all of the same insurance coverage as we do. performed for face-to-face visits.”
Once the practices resumed, most thought they would resume normal operations and move all visits back to in-person. But this did not happen.
Patients get virtual care
“Not only has COVID not gone away, but patients have enjoyed the convenience of virtual visits and service providers have seen the value of this tool,” says Sustrich. “As of August 2022, we have successfully performed over 144,000 virtual visits.
He continued: “In addition, our health system has embarked on a strategy to avoid a situation that has plagued service providers since the advent of the patient portal – the number of require too much medical advice”.
In fact, more than 16,000 requests for medical advice are received each month. This uncompensated care takes hours of the provider day and is in dire need of a solution. Sparrow has taken a multi-tiered approach to solving this problem.
“The first approach is to leverage Epic to categorize medical consultation requests to the right place – one for billing/finance, another for refills, and another for scheduling inquiries. /problem,” he explained. “This significantly reduces the number of medical consultation requests for providers.
“We followed up with both patient and caregiver-led electronic visits in an effort to convert medical decision-making messages into programmable visits,” he said. single. “Monthly reports generated for providers show they have an accurate chance of converting medical consultation requests into electronic visits.”
More than 1,000 electronic visits per month
Although caregiver e-visits have only been available since the second quarter of this year, Sparrow is averaging more than 1,000 e-visits per month. Additionally, a pilot is underway to assess the impact of using a centralized nurse triage process to address minor patient issues, freeing up providers’ time to increase availability. accessibility.
“Our main hospital campus struggled with LOS and bed shortages, as most hospitals did during COVID,” recalls Sustrich. “We needed to take advantage of the bed capacity of our community hospitals. We were quickly looking for a telehealth solution to prevent unnecessary transfers and keep care in place.
He continued: “The iPads with the Zoom video link provided patient-to-provider and provider-to-provider connections.” “The FCC funding we received allowed us to purchase five telemedicine carts from Amwell, allowing an outside vendor to control the pan/tilt/zoom features of the camera, and access to a digital stethoscope.”
Sparrow intends to place these vehicles at all five peripheral ED locations. In the future, it plans to expand specialist resources to provide care across the health system. Specialists such as those focusing on heart rhythms, behavioral health and infectious diseases can never be supported at a community hospital, but collectively and with the help of an epidemic, he said. virtual care, these specialists can serve the entire health system.
24/7 background personnel
“Our current 24/7 on-demand wait time is under 19 minutes, with an average completion rate of over 80%,” Sustrich reports. “It’s rare to find a 24/7 platform staff health system of its own while still having access to patient medical records and the ability to document it in the EHR.
“Many others have contracted this service with a third-party provider, which I believe sacrifices quality of patient care and safety,” he added.
In addition, Sparrow providers who staff this platform will respond to electronic visits from patients without a primary care provider, make COVID follow-up calls, and perform authentication QR in the MySparrow Portal for patients who received the COVID vaccine outside of the health system. After-hours coverage (8 p.m. – 8 a.m.) is provided by three main off-campus ED locations.
“Another metric that I am very proud of is our MySparrow Portal activation rate,” notes Sustrich. “In the early days of the pandemic, it was clear that patient success with our virtual health services was very high among patients who already had a portal account.
“In response, a campaign across Sparrow’s medical team was launched to increase MySparrow Portal activation rates,” he continued. “Patient guidelines were created and the campaign started within the ambulatory practice; each practice was given a goal, implemented best practices, and shared a monthly scorecard. “
Carers achieving their goals
Caregivers were rewarded with gift cards when their practice hit their goals, and hospital funds funded the gift cards. Within two years (April 2020 to March 2022), Sparrow saw a 152% increase in active MySparrow Portal users (146,768 to 369,916) and an increase in the percentage of patients with portal accounts from 55.2% to 78.8%.
The challenges Sparrow faced were similar to most other medical systems, and this led Sparrow to build the plane on the fly and grapple with training and experience gaps, Sustrich said. speak.
“Our assets include a committed leadership team that backs our virtual wellness strategy and is willing to invest in it,” he said. “We also leverage Epic and the continued growth of virtual health tools. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the resilience of our caregivers.”
Sustrich points to different signs of success:
• Over 70,000 video hits successfully completed in the first two years.
• Over $8 million in revenue from video hits.
• Saved patient 40,000 driving hours.
• SUS score increased by 10%.
• Patient satisfaction increased from 80% to 89%.
• Change 20% from phone visits to video.
A Big FCC Remote Grant
Sustrich reports: “Sparrow has the top application for FCC funding in Michigan and was among 62 healthcare facilities nationwide to receive FCC funding during Round 2 of its COVID-19 tele-funding program. me. “$586,000 used to implement ambulance virtual health hardware, a virtual behavioral health program to expand accessibility, and shopping cart technology to enhance communication and improve care for our community hospitals in the area.
“The hardware purchased includes 115 docks, 140 Bluetooth digital scales, 350 headsets, 230 monitors, 115 and a keyboard and mouse,” he continued. “This standardized virtual medical device across our healthcare system makes it accessible to a larger number of video exam providers, thus positively impacting the patient’s health. and increase access to care.”
Due to the nationwide shortage of psychiatrists and behavioral therapists, it is harder for patients to access mental health services.
“Part of the money the FCC bought 40 iPads placed in five emergency rooms and in each inpatient floor at the main hospital to access virtual behavioral health services,” Sustrich said. “Additionally, psychiatrists at Sparrow’s St. Lawrence are virtually able to connect with patients in adult psychiatric units, geriatric psychiatrists, and outpatients via an audio connection. / video.
This will reduce wait times and increase access to behavioral health services, he concludes. “In addition, bed capacity will increase from 60% to 85%.”
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
