Implementing a strong virtual care strategy is a process, but a healthcare practice can start from anywhere.
The consumerization of healthcare has been on the rise for years as patients seek more convenience from their health providers. With the help of digital solutions, practices have taken steps to provide a more seamless experience both in and outside the physical office and develop more engaging relationships between providers and their patients. While this change began slowly at first, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift tremendously.
Over the last year, physicians began implementing additional virtual care solutions to meet growing patient demands to provide greater access to care and more convenient options. And, practices are thinking ahead about what’s next for virtual care and the need for a holistic plan to guide their use of these solutions in a strategic way. To highlight, in a recent Updox survey more than 65% of our respondents said that their practice implemented a virtual care strategy for at least one solution.
What’s Ahead for Providers Adopting Digital Solutions
Virtual care adoption continues to become more widespread with 75% of today’s providers saying it’s important or very important to have a full virtual care strategy moving forward. Despite the momentum and positive impact digital healthcare solutions have had so far, only 28% of providers have actually implemented a full virtual care strategy.
Why? Our recent survey respondents noted experiencing a number of challenges such as costs associated with initial implementation (32%), insurance reimbursement (30%) and strain on their staff (15%).
While practices look to further innovate and grow their business in the years ahead, many simply do not know where to go from here.
Building a Roadmap for Better Virtual Care Implementation
Implementing a strong virtual care strategy is a process, but a practice can start anywhere, even with just one solution. There is no one-size-fits all approach. Rather, every practice must take their own path to developing a virtual care strategy based on their staff and patient needs.
There are, however, best practices to creating a solid virtual care strategy. It’s important to identify your practice needs, set tangible goals and build on the strategy piece by piece. An ideal roadmap for 2021 starts with telehealth and can be built upon with broadcast messaging, secure text messaging, contactless check-in and HIPAA-Compliant eFax.
Whether your practice has or plans to implement healthcare technology solutions into your workflow, a good first step is to evaluate how it will impact practice efficiency and patient convenience. And as your practice and patient needs evolve, so, too, must your virtual care strategy.
