various health care settings even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But with the
novel coronavirus prompting a massive shift away from in-person contact of all
kinds, virtual care began to surge.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) took one measure of the uptick in the first quarter of 2020, citing a
154% increase in telehealth visits during the last week of March 2020 versus
the same period in 2019.
“Telehealth could have multiple benefits
during the pandemic by expanding access to care, reducing disease exposure for
staff and patients, preserving scarce supplies of personal protective
equipment, and reducing patient demand on facilities,” the CDC wrote in an
weekly report on the findings.
With virtual visits encompassing far more than
just telehealth, these tech-enabled solutions are quickly becoming a new normal
that can serve to benefit patients, care providers and health care
organizations.
“It’s going to continue to grow and become much
more prominent than it is today,” says Cheryl Reid-Haughian, vice president, clinical
informatics for CellTrak. “It’s a win-win-win when we embed and use technology
to enable care delivery.”
Defining
virtual care
While virtual care can protect both care recipients
and care providers from an infection control standpoint, it also serves to
benefit care delivery by creating more efficient and accessible care.
“Virtual care has different degrees of
variation that include using plain old telephone to Zoom or more elaborate Bluetooth-enabled
tools used in remote patient monitoring,” Reid-Haughian says.
For organizations utilizing the CellTrak technology,
many functions can take place today either face-to-face or virtually. Caregivers
can document their care activities and supervisors who need to document patient
assessments can do this in person or virtually, too — via phone or video. By diversifying
the service delivery model to include in-person and virtual elements, increased
value can be experienced by patients, staff and to the care system.
The
value of virtual care
Virtual care benefits can largely be grouped
into three categories: operational, financial and clinical.
Operationally, the introduction of virtual
care can increase efficiencies of the organization. While caregivers are
responsible for delivering the care, supervisory staff typically maintain
clinical oversight. By leveraging the virtual format for supervisory oversight
when possible, these supervisors save travel time and resources, which can be a
significant benefit to the organization. Using virtual care technology can also
keep front line staff safe and ensure that service can continue even during
times such as the pandemic. Continued care and monitoring of patients when it
may not otherwise be possible, supports an organization’s goal to keep people
at home safely for the longest time possible.
Financially, virtual care supports a return to
pre-COVID patient volumes and assists in the management of scarce personal
protective equipment (PPE) resources while also allowing for creative
scheduling in times of health human resource shortages.
Clinically, care providers can integrate
virtual technology to create additional touch points such as check-ins,
medication reminders and follow-up monitoring, which can be critical to patient
outcomes particularly in a time of emergency. And while not all payers will
reimburse for virtual care currently, the clinical benefits can translate into
gains in a value-based care environment.
The
future of virtual care
With various solutions available for virtual
care and advocacy for expanding funding for this type of care, the future for
virtual care is limitless in how it could revolutionize home and community
care.
Until then, organizations will be well served
to adopt technology that enables a wide of variety of virtual care modalities
that that improve patient outcomes and provide safety, efficiency and peace of
mind for care providers.
“The real opportunity is to seek more
diversification using technology,” Reid-Haughian says. “The discussion today
about virtual care opens the door to discussions about how these diversified
models can be used to achieve the best care, best outcomes at the best costs.”
CellTrak offers a turnkey care delivery management
solution that enables efficient care delivery in the growing virtual
environment. To learn more, visit https://www.celltrak.com/.
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