Expanding Reach with Connected Care: Innovations Across the Health Continuum

Hospitals and health systems can greatly expand their reach through connected care models that introduce new innovations across the care continuum. By offering 24/7 availability for urgent, primary and mental health needs, for example, critical digital doorways open to a broader population. Virtual care brings essential services directly into a patient's home, making care like chronic condition management more accessible. In acute care, new models enable inpatient virtual nursing and allow specialists to virtually join emergency settings, operating rooms and intensive care units, providing valuable expertise and guidance to staff. These approaches not only improve care coordination and address workforce challenges but also generate cost savings and revenue opportunities and ensure consistent care, enabling hospitals and health systems to extend their community impact.

Pulling in-person and virtual care together

Technology alone cannot bring integrated care models to life. Health systems need wrap-around, in-person functions that support virtual care technologies. Connected care also unifies disparate systems, apps and workflows into a single-entry pathway, enabling patients and clinicians to navigate care with maximum convenience and efficiency.

Tips to establish a foundation for success:

• Confirm your organization’s current level of virtual health maturity
• Define a framework you can use to evaluate the effectiveness of new models
• Build a scalable and sustainable implementation roadmap
• Apply best practices and lessons from implementations in like organizations

Questions to ask:

1. What opportunities or risks do you see with a virtual-first approach to primary, urgent, chronic or acute care?
2. Do you have a single unified platform that can support integrated care models across the care continuum?
3. How are you approaching the increasing opportunities and risks around care at home?
4. How well are you integrating clinical and communication components with each other and the electronic health record system?

What partnerships and experience will you need to guide, advance or accelerate your efforts?