As regulatory restrictions relaxed on telehealth services and communities closed down in response to the COVID pandemic, teams across CommonSpirit Health took action to rapidly scale virtual care capabilities across the ministry to help our ambulatory physicians and APPs continue to safely see patients, meet demand for care, and reduce the transmission of the virus.
Since mid-March, more than 4,000 physicians and APPs have been provisioned and trained, and every possible appropriate patient encounter was converted to a virtual visit. During this time, ambulatory clinicians conducted 375,000 virtual visits.
Today, as we begin to safely resume more in-person clinic care, virtual care will continue to be an important way to meet the needs of our communities within appropriate settings across the care continuum. It will also be part of expanded capabilities in the future.
“Without a doubt, virtual care is playing a vital role in health care delivery today and will be a big part of what defines our care strategy going forward,” said Jane Weldon, System Vice President, Innovation and Transformation, Physician Enterprise. “It won’t replace appropriate in-person visits but it will open up more access points and connectivity in the future as we look at developing additional solutions that are clinically driven and meet consumers where and how they want to be seen.”
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