A Buyer’s Guide to Virtual Visits
Virtual visits are the ability for patients to access care remotely. It is being delivered in two ways:
Synchronously with a scheduled or on-demand real-time encounter
Asynchronously on-demand through email, text, or chat message
Expanding the definition of virtual visits
Virtual visits are the ability for patients to access remote care either synchronously (with a scheduled or on-demand live virtual encounter) or asynchronously and on-demand (through email, text, or chat messages).
Virtual visits, whether synchronous or asynchronous, represent just one piece of the patient care journey and occur as part of a framework alongside other key components. The following sample framework illustrates how the supporting elements occur in sequence with the virtual visit to promote effective care delivery:
Assessment and routing: Ability for a patient to navigate to care options (e.g. through a symptom checker or self-service). An inventory of care options is presented based on patient assessment or search (inclusive of self-care, virtual, and in-person visit options).
Pre-visit prep: Ability for a patient to complete pre-visit information collection to prepare for their virtual visit. May include demographic information, medical history, insurance and payment, the reason for their visit, visit instructions, and an opportunity to test technology to ensure compatibility with patient devices.
Visit: Ability for a patient to connect with a provider synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronous visits can be conducted with video and audio, audio only, video and phone, or phone only. Asynchronous visits can be conducted through live chat or patient questionnaire submission.
Post-visit: Ability for a patient to seamlessly coordinate any necessary follow-up services, including specialty referrals, ancillary services such as labs or imaging, or scheduling repeat visits.
What leading virtual visit solutions offer:
The leading virtual visit solutions go far beyond video visits, with a wide range of tools and capabilities to offer a flexible care experience for patients and a data-rich environment for providers that fits within existing workflows. Some key elements include:
Access and scheduling: Solutions should be multilingual and omni-channel, with no required app download for patients/members. Navigation and scheduling should continue through existing workflows, and providers must be able to launch the solution through the EHR.
Intake and virtual waiting rooms: The ideal solution will offer digital form upload and intake, patient/member queuing, file sharing, notifications when the provider is ready to start the visit, integration with connected devices for vitals collection and tools for patients to test the technology before the visit begins.
Virtual encounter: Solutions should include high-resiliency, high-latency video that can toggle to phone/audio, multi-party video capabilities, group chat, and screen sharing. Asynchronous visits should allow a patient to alternate between modalities (such as text, chat, in-app messaging, or secure portal), integrated symptom checking and virtual triage, estimated provider responsive time, notifications when providers respond, and the ability to escalate to a video visit or in-person care if needed. All solutions should allow file sharing, provide patient education, and obtain feedback after the encounter.
Diagnosis and documentation: Solutions should leverage existing patient data, support templated documentation that flows to the EHR, and push after-visit summaries to the patient portal. Providers must be able to review, confirm, or revisit diagnosis and treatment options within existing provider workflow tools.
Billing, orders, and follow-up: Data regarding eligibility and benefits, prescriptions, labs, orders, and referrals should flow between the solution and the host system, along with pricing and discount information to aid with claim generation. Buyers should also look for automated follow-up and referrals on treatment, adherence, and patient re-engagement, as well as care handoff tools (such as direct scheduling) for patients at escalation or exit points.
Technical support: The leading solutions offer phone, text, and chat-based support for both providers and patients.
Flexible staffing: Buyers should look for solutions that guide patients to relevant providers based on coverage and allow provider pooling to fill under-utilized capacity. Queuing to third-party providers should meet all service level agreements.
Analytics: Solutions should generate data and profile insight about provider utilization and productivity, most commonly treated conditions, volume by day and time, and resolutions versus escalations.
The case for virtual visits
Consumer demand for accessibility and convenience is greater than ever, but wait times for in-person primary care visits have increased, averaging at least seven days at minimum and more than a month in some markets. Virtual visits address these challenges, while also catering to the many patients who prefer them over in-person care.
Organizing for virtual visit success in your health system
Before deploying any virtual visit solution, health systems should do the necessary research and preparation, which includes:
Gaining a clear picture of expected patient demand and projected growth
Examining available provider capacity to accommodate synchronous or asynchronous visits
Identifying who will staff visits, how synchronous and asynchronous visits will be staffed, and which providers will require credentialing
Getting buy-in from clinicians and staff
Upgrading technical infrastructure and hardware as needed
Identifying organizational goals around new revenue streams, commercialization, and care model deployment
The majority of patients prefer virtual visits over in-person appointments, but long-term success for health systems depends on deploying solutions that prioritize patient and provider experiences equally. With careful preparation and a methodical approach to vendor assessment and selection, health systems can increase patient satisfaction, deliver enhanced convenience, enable greater access, improve operational efficiency, and expand catchment areas through virtual visit capabilities.
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