CMIO Paul Testa, MD, outlines the projects his health system has rolled out to enhance patient communication with physicians and digital health initiatives that give patients access to their medical records.
Question: What is the most interesting patient-facing innovation you are working on today?
Dr. Paul Testa: We’re excited by many different things we’re working on at NYU Langone Health, but we are particularly proud of the infrastructure and technology we’ve created that has helped enhance the patient and clinical experience through our digital health offerings. With the NYU Langone Health app, patients can log in using their MyChart account credentials to access their health record in a single place on their smartphone or tablet. Patients can schedule appointments, view test results, and even see their doctor by scheduling a video visit. Providers can access a patient’s enterprise health record in Epic as the single source of information where they can see all clinical data, and maintain consistent clinical workflows regardless of whether a patient appointment takes place in-person or via video visit.
All of this is done through the Epic EHR, our core Cisco communication infrastructure and our Vidyo platform for fully integrated video visits. A major component of this strategy was the decision to leverage our own key platforms to create a single, streamlined digital experience making it easy for both patients and providers to access and utilize.
Q: Can you expand on the digital offerings at NYU Langone? What are the innovative projects you are working on to improve care?
PT: As part of our expanded digital healthcare offerings through the NYU Langone Health app, the NYU Langone Virtual Urgent Care service allows both new and established patients to schedule a video visit from the comfort of their own home. They can log in to their NYU Langone Health app to schedule an appointment, prepare for their visit, video chat with a board-certified NYU Langone emergency medicine doctor, and access their after-visit summary. All of the patient’s follow up care, including medications, labs, and referrals to NYU Langone specialists are accessed and managed through the centralized NYU Langone Health app. This leads to improved continuity of patient care as well as a single repository of the patient’s health data. This standardized, scalable methodology has allowed us to create solutions that meet the needs of our current patients in more specific, personally tailored ways. Virtual Urgent Care at NYU Langone is available to adults and children ages 5 and up in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Q: What results have you seen from the virtual visits and digital efforts?
PT: More than 7,800 Virtual Urgent Care encounters have been completed since the service launched in 2017, and patients have expressed very high satisfaction with our offerings, highlighting the convenience of our services, the ease-of-use of the technology, and the easy access to world-class medical care. We measure patient satisfaction by text messaging patients after their video visit. Overall patient satisfaction averages 4.64 out of 5 stars, and patients rate the ease of use of the technology at 4.60 out of 5 stars. We’re excited to grow our virtual health capacity and offer patients and providers even more options.
Join us for the Becker’s Hospital Review 3rd Annual Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy Conference, May 19-21, 2020 in Chicago. Topics include artificial intelligence, telehealth, data analytics, clinician burnout, population health, pharmaceutical care and more. Learn more and register here. For more information about exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities, contact Maggie Dunne at events@beckershealthcare.com.
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