Virtual Health Integration Linked to Improving Healthcare Delivery

Following interviews with various stakeholders, including employers, the Business Group on Health has provided recommendations for virtual and in-person health integration, which is critical to enhancing healthcare delivery.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of patients and providers that began using telehealth skyrocketed. For example, in December 2021, the FAIR Health Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker found that the COVID-19 omicron surge led to an 11.4 percent rise in national telehealth use.

Since then, many have found that virtual care is part of the new normal of healthcare delivery.

The Business Group on Health, a non-profit organization representing large employers’ perspectives on methods of optimizing workforce strategy, conducted a study with Sage Growth Partners to examine the virtual health landscape with a focus on employer needs. They conducted 39 qualitative interviews with four stakeholders: employers, benefit consultants, vendors, and investors.

The study identified eight key themes related to the virtual health arena, including that the rapid expansion of virtual healthcare has added to healthcare system fragmentation and that virtual health solutions may have reached the point of saturation.

The study also provides a set of recommendations to optimize virtual healthcare delivery.

“Virtual health has shown tremendous promise, especially during the pandemic,” said Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of the Business Group on Health, in a press release. “However, it needs to be rationalized, demonstrate improved outcomes and be integrated with other health care services, including in-person care.”

The set of recommendations by the Business Group on Health includes creating a framework to understand patients' virtual health needs, monitoring consumer experience, ensuring virtual care expands healthcare access, maintaining easy-to-understand patient communication, and measuring outcomes of virtual health solutions.

These actions aim to ensure that patients have a positive experience when using virtual care.

The recommendations also emphasized various virtual health areas requiring attention, such as building virtual health solutions to promote integration and forming partnerships with different stakeholders. 

Not only is it necessary for patients to have a positive relationship with virtual health resources, but providers must also build and maintain a robust system containing these types of tools, according to the report.

“Our study demonstrates that a rigorous, purposeful evaluation of virtual health – in combination with creative partnerships among stakeholders – will begin to deliver success. Virtual health has a place in reducing the total cost of care while improving patients’ health, a complex challenge that requires multifaceted solutions. Without true, cross-party collaboration, the impact will be suboptimal,” said Dan D’Orazio, CEO of Sage Growth Partners, in the press release.

Like these recommendations, many organizations have previously offered guidance on implementing virtual care.

In June, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) composed a brief to assist healthcare experts when selecting mental health mHealth apps. The report covered risk and mitigation strategies, functions, and mental health app features. AHRQ aimed to help providers, patients, and payers in the process of seeking the most appropriate app based on various features.

Interviews conducted in March described how various factors are often overlooked when optimizing telehealth workflows. Appropriate patient selection, standardization, training, and management are all necessary for optimizing telehealth practices, experts told mHealthIntelligence.