Coordinating Care In A Virtual World

Executive Dialogue

Integrating and using data to engage patients and providers

When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, hospitals, health systems and their affiliated physician practices became online caregivers almost overnight. Though many providers had telehealth and remote patient-monitoring capabilities in place prior to the outbreak, they used them relatively infrequently and only for a small subset of their patient populations. Within weeks, most providers were using virtual care models to deliver nonemergent care safely and effectively to most of their patients. As providers and patients adapt to virtual care and as the pandemic subsides, it’s clear that virtual care is here to stay. This executive dialogue examines the capabilities hospitals and health systems are developing and the barriers they’re tackling in building a data-driven, health information technology (IT) infrastructure that seamlessly connects virtual care with in-person care for all their patients and all the affiliated and nonaffiliated care settings throughout patients’ health journeys.