WEBINAR | Virtual Care Maturity Model for Health Systems

Doug Mirsky, PhD, VP of Healthcare Delivery, Digital Medicine Society (DiMe). Through the pandemic, health systems raced to respond to a world where patients could no longer see their providers in person with ease or regularity. This prompted a fast and dramatic shift to incorporate technology, predominantly telehealth, that allowed for a continuation of care using virtual delivery models. Today, we are seeing health systems move from reactive to proactive. While the shift to incorporate telehealth has settled, many health systems are now looking to leverage a broader suite of omnichannel approaches to reach more patients in more ways and to enhance the patient care experience rather than simply replicate it. Effective virtual care strategies encompass not just using audio and visual platforms, but rather incorporating additional care components such as remote patient monitoring, asynchronous messaging, caregiver support, care coordination, remote lab testing, and more.

The Digital Medicine Society’s V1C IMPACT effort, as part of their 501c(3), is a pre-competitive consortium dedicated to supporting virtual first care (V1C) companies and their commitment to patient-centric care. DiMe is not technology determinists and instead, define V1C as medical care for individuals or a community accessed through digital interactions where possible, guided by a clinician, and integrated into a person’s everyday life. Through resources such as their Care Transitions Toolkit, Contracting Toolkit, V1C Core Competencies, and their Payment and Coding toolkit DiMe is making progress in establishing the fit-for-purpose market for seamless patient care that includes virtual and traditional models.

DiMe now intends to develop a virtual care maturity model for health systems to benchmark and understand their current virtual care strategies; clarify the benefits of and requirements for maturing their strategies; and be better prepared to approach the market of virtual care providers for new offerings and payers for coverage of those offerings, when it makes sense to do so.