Proactive use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify high-risk patients and improve patient engagement
Highlights
As the severity of the COVID-19 crisis became apparent, PCP1st, a Florida-based provider
of specialized care for high-risk patients and those in need of complex care management,
partnered with Wanda Health.
PCP1st adopted the Wanda Health integrated telehealth platform and deployed COVID-19 Screening and Remote Care Management programs to 3,000 patients.
The results demonstrated that the proactive use of real-time telehealth and remote monitoring dramatically improved patient engagement and delivered new revenue while identifying high-risk patients that needed ongoing specialized care.
PCP1st continues to successfully transition high-risk patients and those with complex care needs to remote patient monitoring and telehealth interventions improving care plan adherence, reducing unplanned rehospitalizations, and increasing revenue.
The Challenge
The onset of the COVID-19 crisis has presented several new challenges for healthcare
providers including:
Patients, especially those at high risk with pre-existing conditions, are reluctant to visit doctors’ offices, clinics, or hospitals fearing increased risk of infection of COVID-19
Growing need to facilitate remote working for clinical staff and healthcare workers when self-isolating, to maintain high standards of care
Desire to offset rapidly declining revenue at healthcare providers including doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals through reimbursement for telehealth visits
Educating patients on the proper identification of symptoms and supporting their information needs while they are self-isolating
The Solution
PCP1st deployed the COVID-19 Telehealth programs from Wanda Health, providing
patients and quarantined individuals with automated remote symptom screening and
remote care management for symptomatic and COVID-19 positive patients.
Used a “rapid deployment” process going live in 12 days
Patients sent automated COVID-19 Daily Health Checks via telehealth
Doctors and care team received real time Alerts of symptomatic patients
Doctors, staff, and patients interacted via embedded video and voice conferencing
The programs are designed to support reimbursement requirements for COVID-19
Doctors, staff, and patients interacted via the embedded video and voice conferencing
Data collection followed symptom guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Learnings
The results indicate that proactive use of the Wanda Health COVID-19 Telehealth solution by PCP1st produced substantial benefits. The data and analytics helped to improve workflow efficiency that optimized care and generated new revenue. The ease of use of the platform allowed the PCP1st team and their patients to rapidly become proficient using telehealth-enabled care. Key insights included:
Strengthened the patient-provider relationship
Successfully identified at risk patients
New telehealth revenue generated
Improved team productivity
Reduced exposure to disease for patients and care team
Patient Engagement
14% of patients were symptomatic for COVID-19
20% of patients needed medication assistance
82% of patients satisfied with program overall
100% satisfaction among patients requesting a call back
87% satisfaction in patients needing medication assistance
New Revenue Generation
780 billable telehealth encounters completed
32% increase in billable telehealth encounters
980 unique patients received telehealth encounter
Productivity
25% increase telehealth visits completed/team member
22% increase in the unique patients cared for
Conclusions
The success attained by PCP1st using the COVID-19 Telehealth programs by Wanda Health demonstrates a major inflection in how healthcare is being delivered in a clinically and commercially sustainable approach during the pandemic and beyond.
The addition of telehealth and remote monitoring to the care protocols for high-risk patients increases patient engagement while simultaneously improving operational productivity and generating new revenue for the provider.
The workflow integration of telehealth used by PCP1st, enabled by the Wanda Health platform, is helping the provider to more effectively support an ever-broadening range of diseases and conditions including COVID-19, seasonal influenza, chronic diseases, and mental and behavioral health conditions.