The global COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for virtual care options. Telemedicine usage rates increased 300 folds from April 2019 to April 2020. The robust platform offered convenience and effective patient care remotely.
High demand and advantages of virtual care
Till today, the demand for telehealth remains high and consistent. Patients want to go to a provider that offers virtual care options. Telemedicine EMR Software solutions have helped to increase access to care, especially for patients that reside in the outskirts.
In contrast to in-person visits, telehealth sessions are cost-effective and faster. Even average wait times for a virtual urgent care visit are less than an in-person virtual care visit.
UC Davis Health and virtual care options
In 2019, UC Davis Health was providing telehealth services through a third-party vendor. The services were not fully used. When the COVID-19 pandemic was at its highest patient demands for virtual care also increased. In September 2020, the healthcare organization started offering on-demand virtual care. It was able to complete more than 100 virtual visits in a month.
By June 2022 UC Davis Health was providing more than 2000 on-demand virtual visits every month. The virtual care follow-up helped save the patients time as they did not have to stay in the ED for observations.
When the patients want a virtual care session, they have to join a queue from the MyChart patient portal account and wait for the next available physician.
Virtual care to meet different patient volumes
UMMC was encouraged by the success of UC Davis Health’s on-demand virtual visits and decided to join hands with them to initiate its remote care program.
To make room for fluctuations in virtual visit volumes, UMMC allowed patients to schedule virtual appointments from MyChart. Online appointment scheduling has eliminated the need for patients to wait in a queue. Now UMMC can effectively adjust staffing requirements based on the number of scheduled virtual visits.
Moving ahead
Using on-demand virtual care options can help retain and attract new patients. Through these virtual care options care can be made available when patients need it. It helps to fill in care gaps and improve patient outcome levels.
On-demand virtual care service was used by a high number of patients which reflects that patients value virtual care and the demand will continue to increase.
