Three Factors for a Successful Telemedicine Program

We know that interest in telemedicine is heightening. This shift in the industry really started last year, as evidenced by the 2017 Telemedicine Industry Growth Forecast report issued by Aloft. The firm rebranded later in the year as brandigo, but their 2018 reassessment of the industry verified their earlier findings. Their study raised a green flag for investors seeking new opportunities to improve healthcare. Some of the key findings included:

• 78.5% of the patients surveyed said they would be comfortable interacting with their doctor through the Internet.
• 76% of all U.S. hospitals already offer telemedicine – or are planning to this year.
• Wait times for offices that use a telemedicine application have been reduced by an average of five minutes per patient.
• Telemedicine applications are predicted to save hospitals $2 billion annually.
• By 2018, 96% of all employers will offer a telemedicine option to employees.

We also know from experience that clinicians always weigh a number of options before adopting any new workflow. The process of determining whether your practice will offer a telemedicine application may or may not hinge upon the factors highlighted in the study.

But since the practical application of telemedicine technology is nothing new, we can look to other programs to help guide our decision-making process. Let’s look at a telemedicine application in the award-winning Cleveland Clinic to see what factors are important when implementing a successful telemedicine program.

“In noncritical situations, teleconsults and virtual visits have become a convenient way of conducting outpatient visits for patients in various subspecialty areas, such as pediatric neurology, sleep disorders, neuromuscular disease, behavioral health and post-acute stroke care.”
Consult QD
“Going the Distance with Virtual Medicine for Better Access and Experience”
Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic is a 1,400-bed academic medical center and research facility. It is one of the biggest and also the most respected institutions in the country, known for its innovative approaches to care delivery.

In 2014, the Cleveland Clinic began offering telemedicine in an effort to improve patient access to care and operational efficiency. Becker’s reports that, at first, the clinic began their foray into telemedicine with just urgent care. Now, four years into their telemedicine “experiment,” the clinic offers these applications in a wide range of settings from preventive wellness to surgical follow-up treatment. In 2018, some of the telemedicine applications that benefit Cleveland Clinic patients include:

• An express care application, or online minute clinic for urgent care.
• A portal called “MyConsult Online” that allows patients to seek a second opinion from a specialty-provider in the Cleveland Clinic network.
• A remote image upload portal allowing the transfer of digital images from ancillaries to the patient’s EMR record.
• Neurological apps that handle monitoring of remote patient data.
• A telestroke network.

In 2017, the clinic announced new telemedicine pilots for wound care and chronic pain.

It’s clear that Cleveland Clinic remains focused on expanding telemedicine applications to additional targeted patient populations that they believe could benefit from the technology. In addition to noting these successes, what takeaways can the “common” medical practice provider learn from healthcare’s “800-pound gorilla?”

In a Becker’s Health IT& CIO Report article, the Cleveland Clinic shared some tips for rolling out a telemedicine application, based on their years of experience in a variety of specialty areas. They suggested the following three factors for a successful telemedicine launch:

• First, engage the staff in the success of the effort by helping them understand the application, the target audience, and the goals of the new program. Talk with your team about how telemedicine will improve patient satisfaction scores while freeing up the team to focus on other things. Work together to develop a go-live and service roll-out roadmap that will get your staff excited about the possibilities of improved patient volumes, increased access to care, and increased practice efficiencies.
• Second, work with your telemedicine vendor to integrate the telemedicine application into your EMR. Cleveland Clinic has been providing telemedicine actually prior to the use of electronic records. Today the clinic offers fully integrated applications including EMR and revenue cycle. The Becker’s article suggested that the telemedicine application automatically adds data into the patient record based on patient input. It full syncs with billing, so the application is fairly seamless.
• Third, improve patient awareness of this new service by using marketing to roll out and familiarize patients with what the service will entail. The Cleveland Clinic suggested a few different campaigns designed to raise the comfort level of their target audience. At one point, they even sponsored a Super Bowl ad, which they attributed to a spike in interest in telemedicine applications.

“Although hands-on care is often irreplaceable, virtual care creates value by saving time, creating efficiencies, enhancing clinical care and facilitating long-distance connections.”
Consult QD

“Cleveland Clinic Nurses are Using Telehealth Technology in Novel Ways”
Cleveland Clinic

While many practices may feel the scope of innovation evidenced by Cleveland Clinic may be out of reach, there is now a telemedicine application geared specifically for the small clinical provider. OrthoLive is a telemedicine application designed for the orthopedic practice. It brings the power of the virtual visit to your practice for one low monthly fee.

The OrthoLive telemedicine technology offers the same benefits that the Cleveland Clinic has capitalized on, in an affordable package designed to empower the smaller clinical practice.

Some of the benefits of OrthoLive include:

• Lowering practice overhead costs.
• Reducing travel costs for patients.
• Improved access to clinical care.
• Increased patient satisfaction scores.
• Raising patient safety and quality scores.

Today, orthopedic practices are using the OrthLive telemedicine application in a variety of practice workflows, including:

• Pre-surgical consults.
• Post-surgical rechecks.
• E-prescribing.
• Chronic disease management.

The news is out; doctors and their patients are successfully benefiting from telemedicine all across the country. With health systems widely offering the service, OrthoLive has developed a technology that can help your practice compete with some of the largest and most reputable clinical providers in the country.

If you’re ready to consider telemedicine, our team would be pleased to provide you with a demo of our service. Contact OrthoLive today.