Virtual Care Center
Mission Health’s Virtual Care Center Vision Mission Health is poised to launch a transformative care vision combining our remarkable compassion with cutting-edge technologies, resulting in enhanced, integrated delivery of patient care for the people of western North Carolina (WNC). This unique concept aims to establish a network of Virtual Care Centers through virtual, world-class care offerings. These Virtual Care Centers will help hospitals and health systems utilize physicians more efficiently, connect specialists to rural physicians or hospitals, and improve patient access to care.
Our region’s mountainous terrain, challenging population demographics, and rural physician shortages create a perfect storm isolating many families and communities from reliable healthcare.
Not surprisingly, individuals in WNC often face health and lifestyle challenges, including: • Distance to healthcare facilities, provider shortages and access difficulties due to rugged terrain • Low health literacy scores, and a lack of education and understanding of disease prevention management • Difficulty accessing resources (such as healthy food and exercise facilities) to support wellness and disease prevention In 2010, Mission Health established the Center for Advanced Virtual Care as an innovative solution to enhance timely and convenient access to healthcare for the rural communities of WNC. It’s now time to build upon that commitment and reach the full potential for this critically needed service in our community.
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With a network of comprehensive virtual care services, we aim to transform delivery of care, making it more accessible and less expensive, thus helping our communities prevent disease and better manage chronic conditions. Virtual care services will help: 1. Prevent disease 2. Educate our community 3. Assist in the management of chronic diseases prevalent in the WNC population 4. Expand care sites to patient homes 5. Improve access to primary and specialty providers across WNC 6. Drive healthcare value-improvement through consumer connectivity 7. Disseminate discoveries for the benefit of care improvement across the nation Investments in these state-of-the-art Virtual Care Centers will ensure that WNC residents have access to healthcare services when and where they need them. In addition, Mission Health’s partnership with specialized and highly-trained clinicians will ensure coordination of important clinical programs throughout WNC.
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Need For Virtual Care Centers A focused expansion of the Virtual Care Centers program will address numerous care disparities and barriers in the region, providing patients direct access to high-quality specialty care in a timely, cost-effective manner. Virtual care services will address the following regional problems: Lack of healthcare providers. This proposed project will directly address the lack of healthcare providers in rural regions. With the help of virtual care technology, specialized healthcare providers at one location will be available to patients at multiple locations. Economic barriers. Resulting from this project, care will be less costly, and patients won’t have to miss work for travel to the medical care site. Simply put, each patient will receive higher-quality care at a lower cost, and with less life disruption. Today patients and their families often drive great distances to receive care, costing them both time and money. Worse yet, many of those patients forego preventative or preemptive care due to health costs, oftentimes requiring more expensive services that could have been avoided. Reducing the amount of time required to be seen provides direct cost savings to patients and more rapid access to clinicians, improving outcomes and reducing unnecessary services and admissions. Consumers are more accountable for the cost of their own care than ever before. In addition, early intervention frequently leads to savings and improved outcomes, such as reduced avoidable admissions/office visits, ED visits, and readmissions. Virtual care offers a wide variety of wearable technologies, remote home-monitoring, and smart phone applications and attachments. Home computers and other consumer healthcare devices will create a new platform upon which we can connect with patients at critical junctures in their health to improve their experiences and decrease overall health spending. Chronic disease prevalence for many conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, and other similar conditions, is greater in WNC than with other state and national averages. WNC patients, especially those with multiple chronic diseases, consume significant resources. Virtual Care Centers and our proposed virtual models will transform the way we manage this patient population, improving the experience of care and outcomes, and reducing the cost of care.
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Virtual Care Center Models Mission Health will use Virtual Care Centers to better manage relationships across the continuum of care by providing the following services: eVISITS: PROVIDER-TO-PROVIDER CONSULTATIONS This virtual care service will serve as the foundation for hospital-to-hospital and primary care physician (PCP)-to-specialist relationships. eVisit technology will enable real-time collaboration among specialty providers, data sharing, and access to a collection of enterprise resources. While Mission Health already makes programs like teleStroke available, this eVisit technology will enable more specialties to connect with regional hospitals and PCPs who are seeking specialty consultations that are unavailable locally. Thus, this service will allow for immediate and timely support of a patient’s ongoing health needs. PROVIDING ON DEMAND ACCESS TO THE PATIENT By utilizing on demand technology, we can enhance care management capabilities and expand the portfolio of consumer-based health technologies. With on demand services, patients will be able to access approved educational content, join support groups, insert and track healthy living metrics, and use healthcare tools, such as online appointment scheduling. Supported by an online portal that is customizable to a patient’s needs, these on demand technologies will provide transparency and ease to match the desires of our consumers. REMOTE MONITORING Remote Patient Monitoring converts healthcare delivery from a model of intermittent episodic care to one of continuous observation. This technology empowers patients with chronic disease or serious post- illness or surgery needs, to monitor their clinical status and progress. It can provide similar access for families and other caregivers. Remote Patient Monitoring provides the care team with real-time visibility into a patient’s condition or progress. This technology adds comfort and security to patients and families, as the patient will be closely and continually monitored by medical professionals. When a patient’s condition changes, the system will alert a care manager, prompting intervention and coordination with the PCP or health specialist.
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Financial Projections Capital Expenses necessary to implement the stated goals include: • Centralized Scheduling Mechanism for Virtual Visits: $1,000,000 Mission Health’s Information Technology department will build a centralized scheduling mechanism for virtual visits, with a ballpark estimate of $1 million for building, implementation, and user training. • Patient Technology Endpoints for Virtual Visits: $1,410,000 47 possible endpoint locations @ $30,000 per location • Provider Technology Endpoints for Virtual Visits: $189,000 63 possible endpoint locations @ $3,000 per location • Multi-Channel Technology Platform (including voice, video, text, chat, and email): $2,500,000 This platform will engage patients outside the health system by providing on-demand access to educational content, data gamification, support services, and online scheduling. • Remote Monitoring Interface: $3,000,000 Remote Monitoring will leverage a multi-channel technology platform to establish the patient home as a siteof-care, monitoring patient’s symptoms for timely intervention. This interface will also house the data for research purposes. • Remote Monitoring Kits: $560,000 - $840,000 Cost per Kit: Estimated $280. Project need: 2,000-3,000 Kits Remote Monitoring Kits include blood pressure device, oxygen saturation device, a scale, blood glucose monitor, peak flow device, thermometer, and ECG heart rhythm device.
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