During the recent Home & Hybrid Care Virtual Summit 2024, St Lukes Health shared how they have expanded virtual access to support patient care journeys over the past three plus years. It is refreshing to see how St Lukes views virtual as a big front door to their care network, how they have personalized the entrance and experience across more than a half dozen patient programs and how they have invested in an integrated data platform and tools for better care experiences.
Like other health systems, Idaho- based St Lukes Health is addressing today’s healthcare headwinds including staffing challenges, provider burnout, the consumers increased expectations for their healthcare experience, all within the regulatory and reimbursement landscape.
In September 2021, St Lukes Health launched a telehealth program to patients with one of seven low acuity conditions. Since then, their virtual program has expanded to provide patients with immediate care access until they can schedule and see their providers, which may take up to a few months.
“Our team value is that we (virtual care) will be the quickest access to a provider”, explains Abby Losinski, MHA, Director of Telehealth at St Lukes. Abby’s group is part of the Consumer access and experience team.
St Luke Virtual & Hybrid Model
Since late 2021, St Lukes has developed needed processes and infrastructure to successfully expand their virtual program with a centralized virtual support team, virtual command center platform to address incoming patient demand and virtual care patient data integration to support care collaboration and a superior patient experience.
While many health systems launch separate virtual programs to support urgent care, mental health, and chronic conditions, St Lukes centralized team supports many patient populations with virtual care access. They view this virtual interaction as an opportunity to begin a patient relationship.
Several patients targeted by St Lukes for their virtual care program:
St Lukes Virtual Care Access Experience Success
Their virtual program success is achieved through continuous focus on the patient experience. St Lukes has designed their virtual experience from the outside- in and offers patients the bridge into their health system care network.
Here are several success elements that I have noticed to deliver care continuity:
Designed Patient Experience to fit care scenario. Newly pregnant patients are set on the Maternity path, supported by the virtual team with education, testing and virtual visits until their OB appointment. Service Line Extension patients such as oncology may have access to digital tools for remote monitoring with condition education and support until their specialty appointment.
Partnered for Patient Care Coordination. St Lukes’ Consumer access & experience team has built partnerships with different service lines and settings across their network. Patients accessing virtual care at St Lukes needing more care are escalated to these clinical partners within the St Lukes network. St Lukes ensures patient care quality is maintained by using the same clinical guidelines for virtual and in- person care.
Built Integrated Patient Data & Tech Infrastructure. “St Lukes has decided that virtual care can not be this thing that lives outside of the health system”, Losinski emphasizes. St Lukes has invested to integrate and augment patient data (TytoCare devices) enabling clinicians to access information from all clinical interactions and from patients from beyond the walls to deliver better patient care and experiences.
St Lukes Virtual Care Feedback
Through marketing research, St Lukes has learned:
Consumers: The “brand” offering virtual care services really matters. Consumers like that the doctors conducting the virtual visits work for St Lukes and live in the community and appreciate that their PCP can view their virtual visit notes.
Patients: After participating in St Lukes’ virtual services, patients rated the experience an equivalent of 4.9 stars (out of 5). “Thank you for being there when no one else was” shares a patient.
Providers: Clinicians delivering virtual services have a strong provider experience; “appreciate the increased location and schedule flexibility”, “being in the moment for patients” and “getting to work from home”.
St Lukes Virtual Care Direction
Earlier this year, St Lukes launched eVisits, an asynchronous virtual care option. For $29/visit, patients can message a clinician about one of seven symptoms. eVisits are viewed as a virtual care “entry point which affordable and convenient for patients”.
St Lukes will continue expand virtual care access for their patients. “Currently, we are 8am-8pm but we are looking to extend our hours to 24x7” Losinski shared.
It is impressive to see how St Lukes brings patients into their care system through a larger virtual care front door, leverages care partnerships and protocols for consistent patient care quality and empowers care collaboration with integrated data and tools. St Lukes’ virtual care investments and vision enable them to effectively address staffing and consumer expectation challenges while delivering a superior patient and provider care experience.