Healthcare organizations plan to expand telespecialty, virtual sitting

Healthcare organizations are planning to implement or expand telehealth-based specialty and virtual sitting services with their existing virtual care vendor, according to a new KLAS report.

For this report, KLAS researchers interviewed seven to 24 unique healthcare organizations. These organizations represent customers for five virtual care companies: Amwell, Andor Health, Caregility, eVisit, and Teladoc Health. They collected data from March 2023 to March 2024.

The report shows that current virtual care solution implementations and future plans are mainly driven by large organizations with more than 500 beds. The top two use cases these organizations plan to implement or expand with their current virtual care vendor are telespecialty and virtual sitting. The next most popular virtual care use cases are scheduled outpatient visits, virtual nursing, virtual emergency rooms, and virtual rounding.

Of the five virtual care companies assessed in the KLAS report, Caregility and Teladoc Health customers reported using the companies’ solutions for more than five use cases.

Teladoc Health respondents noted the benefits of the InTouch solution in expanding specialist coverage. Some customers, especially large organizations, plan to expand their InTouch solution to support virtual sitting, rounding, and nursing.

“Generally, respondents see InTouch as an effective, stable clinical tool with limited downtime, saying that it improves patient outcomes by improving the timeliness of patient care or reducing the need for relocation,” the report states.

However, customers have some complaints, including the cost of the solution. They also cited a need for more proactive support.  

Caregility respondents report the solution is mainly used within its virtual intensive care unit (ICU). Overall, customers appear to trust the vendor and are planning to expand the use of the solution, especially for virtual sitting.

Though many report extensive collaboration and partnership with Caregility, overall customer satisfaction has decreased over the last two years. Respondents cite overpromising, development delays, poor issue resolution, and the need for more robust reporting around usage and return on investment (ROI) metrics.

Amwell customers also report numerous issues with the vendor, including slow development, inadequate support, and high costs, resulting in some customers replacing the solution. The Amwell customers who plan to stick with the vendor and expand their use cases will do so with the Amwell Converge platform.

“Interviewed customers on Converge Platform tend to be more satisfied than the legacy platform customers, highlighting the EHR integration and the ability for patients to join calls via a link rather than an app download,” the report states.

A 2024 Best in KLAS winner, eVisit is viewed as a “stable” platform that “generally delivers the functionality needed for straightforward outpatient use cases,” according to the report. While some respondents feel the solution doesn’t have the functionality needed to be used more broadly, they noted that the vendor’s support team and executives are collaborative and responsive.

On the other hand, Andor Health customers report broad, flexible use cases for virtual care and patient engagement, emphasizing that the vendor offers a high level of customization.

The report follows challenging news from some of the digital health companies included.

For instance, Teladoc Health announced on April 5 that CEO Jason Gorevic is leaving the role, effective immediately. The sudden departure ends a 15-year tenure. The news came a few weeks before the company announced its first-quarter (Q1) financial results for fiscal year 2024. The company’s revenue grew 3 percent year-over-year to $646.1 million. However, it also recorded a net loss of $81.9 million.

Amwell noted similarly underwhelming financial results. In Q1 2024, the company experienced a net loss of $73.4 million, compared to $50 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company’s revenue for the quarter totaled $59.5 million.