Interview: Amy Mansue, President CEO, Inspira Health Network

Coming together

Cooperation among health networks proved key throughout the pandemic

How important is Inspira Health to the South Jersey community? The last year has been a traumatic experience for many people in the healthcare community. This reminds us that no matter how long we do this job, there are events that rock us to our core. For Inspira, being able to serve our community and be there in a time of need has been a real gift. I cannot imagine how much more difficult this would have been had we not had our new state-of-the-art facility, which opened two months prior to the pandemic. This was a test for everyone, but we were able to better care for our patients. All of the region’s health networks came together and worked collaboratively, and that sense of collaboration and information sharing is a testament to how much we all had each other’s backs. That will continue in some ways as we move forward. How has demand changed for telehealth services after its emergence during the pandemic? You cannot talk about COVID-19 without talking about telehealth. As we look at the demand for that primary care service, the segment that has boomed is behavioral health services. People who have had behavioral health services over time actually prefer this medium of treatment. We are now seeing almost an elimination of patients not showing up to their appointments. Since the beginning of COVID-19, March 2020 through April 2021, we have had 178,464 telehealth visits, and almost a third of those were related to behavioral health. It’s difficult, especially for adolescents, to manage in this environment of isolation. The long-term impact of a lack of socialization is a significant issue, and parents need to be alert to how serious this is. We’re also seeing a dramatic drop from pre-pandemic levels in people who have been diagnosed with serious issues because there is still a fear of attending hospital appointments. The American Cancer Society estimates that 35% of Americans missed routine cancer screenings due to COVID-19-related fears and care disruptions when many facilities reduced or suspended services.

What is Inspira doing to control healthcare costs? Part of the conversation is giving people the information they need to better manage their care. We’re trying to identify the risk factors that end up exacerbating health concerns. A lot of that is using our data and AI, which allows us to model healthcare outcomes. That may drive up costs in the short term because they will be accessing more primary care but, in the long term, this will generate massive savings. We want to continue proactively conducting those screenings. Our breast screening department has been awarded a grant to carry out the outreach for breast screenings that will hopefully prevent long-term health issues.

Amy Mansue

President & CEO – Inspira Health Network

New Jersey is home to 43 teaching hospitals and five medical schools.

( ) With the arrival of the pandemic, questions began to emerge as to whether this hospital building spree would continue. South Jersey in 2020 saw a major lull in M&A activity in the health sector as institutions devoted their efforts to saving lives and making sure their business models were viable as their budgets were clipped by the halt of elective procedures. While there is reason to bet against a recovery as the vaccination campaign continues and the pandemic recedes, the numbers have yet to confirm this.

Telehealth Among the biggest health stories of the past year has been the rise in telehealth. With the onslaught of the pandemic, the number of people who were visiting their doctors virtually rather than in person skyrocketed. In some cases, visits to hospital doctors in 2020 were 95% virtual. For certain routine check-ups, many think this innovative approach is here to stay.

In South Jersey, there have been a number of notable expansions of telehealth services. In a display of the integration of telehealth into the existing hospital infrastructure, Ambulnz, a leading telehealth provider, has partnered with Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia and in the region at large.

As well, telehealth has shown its ability to address issues surrounding mental health. As the pandemic raged over the last year, many found their mental health adversely affected by the stress surrounding getting sick, someone close getting sick, or the toll taken by the lockdown measures. There was a glut of demand and a dearth of supply. To address this, 11 CVS pharmacies in South Jersey and Philadelphia introduced MinuteClinics as a feature in their CVS HealthHUB. MinuteClinics offers telehealth that is geared toward alleviating mental health conditions.

Life Sciences Another growing health-related industry to watch is biotech and life sciences. South Jersey is uniquely served and populated by universities, including growing institutions such as Rutgers and Rowan. Princeton is not far away, in the center of the state, and Philadelphia with its wealth of higher education institutions is just over the Delaware River.