In the beginning of March, as COVID-19 became an urgent issue, we were able to launch our virtual patient visits in just five days. This was possible because providers and patients were familiar with the solutions needed; they already had the technology on their devices, and by now knew it well enough to adopt it quickly.
Hackley Community Care has 14 locations comprised of 240 employees, including 50 medical providers, behavioral health providers, and other caregivers. Our mission is to support and promote the physical and mental health of our patients, supporting their pathway to wellness through quality care and education. We’ve also been clients and partners of Allscripts for 14 years, using the vendor’s solutions to help deliver quality care safely and efficiently. With the recent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this became even more crucial.
While Hackley already had the telehealth portal offered by Allscripts FollowMyHealth®, our staff didn’t use it as commonly as other solutions on the same platform. Since we had been using FollowMyHealth for five years prior, however, their prior training and familiarity on those other solutions kickstarted their ability to adopt telehealth quickly, and patients who already knew and liked the platform were happy to adopt the portal as well.
Another solution, Allscripts Professional EHR™ Mobile, was key in setting up our telehealth system. Pro Mobile enabled all our physicians to speak directly to patients over the phone, while remotely accessing that patient’s chart and key information in the EHR. This kept the process simple and streamlined, helping to prevent burnout during a hectic time. Starting a virtual visit with a patient, and gathering the information needed to conduct it, took literally two clicks. Patients, meanwhile, already used the portal as their mechanism for getting records and requesting prescriptions and visits.
Everyone adopted this change so quickly in part because the training during initial rollout had been so thorough. By March 30, we were performing medical virtual visits and rolling out a COVID-19 RN triage team. Our staff helped to set up dozens of further FollowMyHealth patient portal accounts a week, and providers and patients were very happy with our approach.
Since then, we have not only seen a patient portal upturn, but higher satisfaction for our providers and staff who are seeing patients virtually and continuing to deliver the care they need. Our telehealth program is built on solutions we had in the past, but this is the future for us.
