Overview

CommonSpirit Health™ is committed to building healthier communities, advocating for those who are poor and vulnerable, and innovating how and where healing can happen—both inside our hospitals and out in the community. Our commitment to serve the common good is delivered through the dedicated work of thousands of physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, and staff; through clinical excellence delivered across a system of 137 hospitals and more than 1,000 care centers serving 21 states; and through more than $4 billion annually in charity care, community benefits, and government program services.

With a large geographic footprint representing diverse populations across the U.S. , CommonSpirit is a leader in advancing the shift from sick care to well care.

Supernova Award Category

Next Generation Customer Experience

The Problem

By March 2020, the true impact of COVID-19 was being felt in the United States and healthcare organizations were attempting to respond to the ominous crisis. While the healthcare industry was taking centerstage in an attempt to contain the virus and save lives, the industry also had to navigate a shift in the delivery of care. Virtual channels for the delivery of care and virtual health services had been around for some time but were not widely adopted by healthcare organizations as they were not reimbursed on par with physical care encounters. 

The COVID 19 pandemic challenged CommonSpirit Health to respond to this situation to stay true to our mission of providing care for the underserved and advancing social justice for all. The CommonSpirit Health Information Technology and Digital team took this opportunity and scaled platform to provide ambulatory care virtually.  

The Solution

The solution to providing care for millions during pandemics was to build a scalable virtual care platform. The biggest challenge was time; or rather, the lack of it. We were facing a pandemic of unprecedented proportions and the spotlight was on us. We had to rapidly transform to save lives while keeping our clinicians and our staff safe from a virus we had not yet begun to fully understand. 

We also had to move a very large organization in one direction on a platform that many had tried in the past but had not yet fully embraced for many reasons – telehealth. And we knew it had to be one direction for the whole organization; even though we had disparate technology platforms and several human-driven processes as a human-centric industry. 

To solve for these challenges, we returned to our mission. It was our mission, and our people inspired by our mission, who would enable us to design and deliver a unified nationwide virtual platform for care in a matter of days.

The results

The Virtual Health initiative has now delivered just over 1.5 million virtual ambulatory care visits at CommonSpirit Health and we continue to grow at an average rate of about 5,500 visits per day across our national health system. This service has delivered a very positive rate of return financially, but most importantly, has delivered immeasurable lifesaving care to patients at a critical time for our nation, while also keeping our patients and care providers safe and protected from COVID-19.

At our first COVID-19 surge, we were delivering nearly 40% of our ambulatory care via virtual health. If it weren’t for Virtual Health, our nonprofit clinics would have suffered crippling losses and our patients would not have had access to the care they needed when they needed it. Even now, as we have learned to prevent the transmission of the disease in healthcare settings, the percentage of our virtual health visits has stabilized at around 20% of our total ambulatory visit volume (note that we were at just around 2% before the development of our Virtual Health initiative) and we anticipate this to continue to grow into the future. This enables us to see more patients and reduce clinician burnout as the process time is much less with Virtual Health. We built an innovative new model for healthcare, even though other healthcare systems have developed virtual care services during this time, very few have done so at our scale and across 21 states.

Metrics

On average, across the various health insurance companies we transact with, we now earn around $150 per Virtual Health visit. Thus, this new and rapidly developed (in a matter of a few days in March 2020) service of Virtual Health alone has accounted for over $195 million in revenue to CommonSpirit Health in just 10 months and continues to generate $15 million a month in revenue.

The Technology

Public Cloud 

Video and audio conferencing

Disruptive Factor

This is not a common feat of human and digital engineering and possibly a once-in-a-lifetime event. This effort was borne out of a dire need to address one of the greatest challenges our nation (and the world) has ever faced. As we continue our fight against COVID-19, our care providers continue to put their lives on the line to heal and return patients to their homes and loved ones. This initiative enabled us to protect not just our patients, but also our care providers as they did what they do best from a distance without fear of infection. 

At our first COVID-19 surge, we were delivering nearly 40% of our ambulatory care via virtual health. If it weren’t for Virtual Health, our nonprofit clinics would have suffered crippling losses and our patients would not have had access to the care they needed when they needed it. The percentage of our virtual health visits has stabilized at around 20% of our total ambulatory visit volume (note that we were at just around 2% before the development of our Virtual Health initiative). It's game-changing to adopt a disruptive model that enables us to see more patients and reduce clinician burnout as the process time is much less with Virtual Health.

Shining Moment

This project is another form of service to our patients and providers. It is part of our mission to serve the vulnerable and our own. But most importantly it is a reflection of the power of the human spirit to reach, heal, and serve others in times of strife; and this, must be celebrated.