One of those apps, PediaQ’s Q.care, facilitates on-demand, after-hours nurse triage and house calls through a platform similar to Uber. Originally developed for pediatrics, Q.care allows hospitals to brand the smartphone app, deliver care directly to consumers and cut costs in the process. PediaQ CEO and Founder Jon O’Sullivan says his team developed the app in recognition of a cultural shift toward on-demand services.
Mr. O’Sullivan spoke with Becker’s Hospital Review about Q.care’s launch and his goal to expand the originally pediatric house call service to geriatric and other market segments as digital health grows.
Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: How did you develop Q.care?
Jon O’Sullivan: We developed Q.care in 2014, hired our own team of nurse practitioners, and launched a “direct-to-consumer” model in September 2015, with the goal of demonstrating lower costs and the ability to contract with payers. Then, we really started to look more broadly. Since 2015, consumers have used the Q.care app to request over 3,500 house calls. The service rapidly gained traction with high patient and consumer satisfaction reviews, and gained acceptance by managed care payers like Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna and Humana. We started talking to health systems, and in the last month we signed license arrangements with Houston-based Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Baylor Scott & White’s McLane Children’s Hospital in Temple, Texas. Now we are working to license the platform with more health systems nationally.
Q: How does Q.care work as an after-hours access point?
JO: Q.care is the first mobile app built for after-hour house calls and nurse triage/navigation calls. House calls cost less and are far more convenient than any other after-hours access point. Triage/navigation calls are important because now the triage nurse is armed with much more data about the patient and can more effectively direct the user to the best point of care or access point into a health system. The platform works like Uber in that it is a true “on-demand” platform. The Q.care mobile application platform extends a health system’s brand onto the consumer’s smartphone to immediately connect a parent on nights and weekends to a pediatric specialist for a house call or a free “smart” nurse triage call. We use the term “smart” because unlike current nurse call systems, with Q.care a nurse immediately has important information including the name, gender, age, photo, location, responsible party, primary care physician and insurance of the patient.
Q: How have physicians and health systems responded to Q.care?
JO: We focus on after-hours care when the primary care physician is not available, so physicians are very supportive. We’ve also received a very strong response from health systems who want to create additional access points for patients, especially since the services provided through Q.care are covered by health insurance plans, and the cost of implementation for a hospital is very low. Importantly, for hospital systems, Q.care extends their brand to patients’ smartphones, where consumers are making more and more buying decisions.
Q: What are benefits of using the app?
JO: The value proposition for consumers is a house call delivered through the Q.care app costs far less than an emergency department visit or even an urgent care visit, plus it is far more convenient and increases patient satisfaction.
Q: What is the future role of healthcare delivery platforms like Q.care?
JO: There’s about six or eight companies that have launched applications like this, including New York City-based Pager and West Coast-based Heal. A number of platforms are starting to gain momentum, but we believe our model has demonstrated the greatest ability to succeed. Q.care is the only platform focusing on after-hours care and an initial focus toward pediatrics, where demand is higher. We are also the only platform focused on building relationships with health systems, so they can leverage their provider organization and launch a branded house call service of their own as this type of delivery model gains wider acceptance.
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