5 health care delivery priorities for 2022 and beyond

In the wake of a record number of patients embracing virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic, health care professionals are seeking ways to better blend in-person and virtual care delivery. To that end, Amwell and Google Cloud partnered with Fierce Healthcare to survey 194 health care executives about their investment priorities.

“With these results in hand, health systems and health plans can explore the continued challenges and areas of opportunity that surround virtual and in-person care capabilities and investments, especially as they relate to implementing an effective hybrid care model that improves both provider and patient experiences,” notes an executive brief, “The State of Virtual Care: How Providers and Payers Are Prioritizing Investments in Virtual and Hybrid Healthcare” and published by Fierce Healthcare.

Here are the five key findings from the survey, which are intended to assist health systems, hospitals, and payers planning investments and strategies for the post-COVID-19 telehealth landscape.

1. The top three virtual care priorities respondents identified are improving member experience (65%), expanding access to care (59%), and acquiring new members (37%). Those priorities also match their top investments.
2.  The top five areas in which respondents have made “much or some” investment in the past 12 months are telehealth platform or video infrastructure (73%), patient engagement platforms (69%), patient-to-physician messaging (48%), virtual clinical programs (48%), and automated visit reminders, patient intake, or after-visit summaries (48%). Those investments also align with respondents’ investment plans for the next 12 to 18 months.
3. The top three challenges of hybrid care, according to respondents, are the adoption of virtual care among patients or members (55%), delivering seamless experiences (40%), and reimbursement uncertainty (39%). Other challenges cited include integration with existing electronic health records (32%), adoption of virtual care among providers or physicians (30%), and administrative issues such as scheduling (29%).
4. Hybrid care challenges are “slightly different” for frontline providers than for patients or members. Survey respondents indicated their top challenges for frontline providers are delivering a seamless patient or member experience (53%), integration within existing systems such as electronic health records (47%), and reimbursement challenges or uncertainty (44%). On the other hand, according to respondents, the biggest challenges for patients and members include enabling technology (64%), ability to easily schedule care (51%), and a seamless and integrated experience regardless of care setting (56%).
5. Training and ease of use will be key to patient adoption, while technology interoperability will be key to health care organizations’ success. Collectively, they “paint a clear picture of what must be overcome for the successful integration of in-person and virtual care,” according to the report. That “picture” includes implementing and using the technology, the cost and training required to support the technology, and the technical ability and adoption of both physicians and patients.

“Health systems and health providers are on the verge of a future where the lines between virtual care and in-person care completely blur — the digital and physical will be blended so seamlessly with the technology and data interoperability that it will simply be healthcare as we know it,” the report concludes.