by Stephen Reed | Healthcare, Industry - Healthcare, News
The Covid-19 pandemic propelled the healthcare industry into telemedicine almost overnight. Now, more than two years later, doctors and health care practices and organizations are able to take a breath and consider how to optimize virtual visits for patients and physicians. One way to do this is by implementing a physician-led team-based care approach much like the systems used for in-office visits.
What is Team-Based Care?
Team-based care is an orchestrated office system that allows doctors and other in-office professionals to work together to take care of a patient. They accomplish this by each professional bringing their strengths to the task at hand, and performing at the highest level of their skill set and training. When the pandemic hit, the hard-won workflow of these office systems reverted to a routine rooted in the past, where physicians alone carried out most of the work.
Why is Team-Based Care Important?
For many physicians and practices, the pandemic forced health care providers to pivot to telehealth before a team-based approach could be established, but a physician-does-all system is not sustainable in a telemedicine environment any more than it’s sustainable in an in-office environment. The benefits of team-based care include increased accessibility, improved quality of patient care, increased patient access to care, improved team efficiency, improved satisfaction among patients and physicians, and reduced burnout among professionals.
Team-Based Care Provides an Advocate for the Patient
When a medical assistant or nurse accompanies a physician in an exam room, they are serving partly as an advocate for the patient, and this can be true for telemedicine environments as well. The nurse or medical assistant on the virtual call can be sure that the physician has provided all the care that was needed in the context of that visit.
Team-Based Care Strengthens Trust with Patients
Trust is a crucial component of the patient-physician relationship. Adding another clinical staff member to that dynamic during a telemedicine visit gives the patient a chance to establish a trusting relationship with an additional medical professional. This person can be an added ear for the patient — someone else they can turn to with questions or concerns. Additionally, when a member of the clinical staff can take care of electronic health records and documentation, the physician is free to focus solely on the patient, which further solidifies the trust built between them.
How to Implement Team-Based Care
Successful team-based care approaches center the patient and promote strong written and verbal communication. Each care team member must be appointed a clearly-defined role in which they use their skills at the highest capacity. Organization leaders should also develop procedures for communicating information about the patient, ensuring that each team member has access to the data needed to make informed care decisions. Finally, be sure the patient understands that they have the support of a team by emphasizing each team member’s role with the patient.
by Daniel Kittell | Accounting News, Business Consulting, COVID-19, Industry - Veterinary Medicine
Much like boredom breeds creativity, challenging times breed innovation. Though we will eventually return to normal, it will be a new normal—one where veterinarians have learned to adapt, survive, and even thrive during a global health crisis and economic downturn. Vet practices, which traditionally have been brick-and-mortar businesses, were forced almost overnight to implement online consultations, digital diagnoses, and curbside visits. These changes, it turns out, may be beneficial for business not just in the face of a pandemic, but permanently.
Telemedicine
A critical concern for businesses during the pandemic has been maintaining incoming cash flow, and though veterinary practices have had to adapt quickly, telemedicine—including remote consultations, diagnoses, and prescriptions—has provided an avenue for concerned pet owners to continue accessing affordable, professional vet care while helping to keep vet practices profitable. Along with aiding in restoring work/life balance among staff, offering telemedicine services, including curbside visits, is especially beneficial for immunocompromised and differently abled clients.
If vet practices were doing telemedicine prior to the pandemic, it’s likely that they weren’t charging for the service, but Covid-19 has given the green light to let clients know that payment for such time and expertise will be normal practice going forward. After all, services like curbside visits are so far proving to increase duration of appointments, as new intake processes need to be developed and back-and-forth communication with clients can take time.
Online Outreach
A strong line of communication with clients during and after the pandemic is imperative, and this is a time when veterinary practices can really boost and nurture existing client relationships as well as establish new ones. One can look to the company Chewy, which has experienced a momentum in revenue, due in large part to customer service and a new customer acquisition rate that is significantly higher than pre-pandemic. The company experienced an influx of active customers greater in the first half of 2020 than in all of 2019.
“We built Chewy by putting the customer at the center of everything that we do. In a world of uncertainty, qualities like trust, convenience, and customer service really matter, especially when it comes to caring for family or loved ones,” said Chewy CEO Sumit Singh.
Veterinary practices can use their websites and social media platforms to engage with clients and keep them informed, now and moving forward, by relaying valuable information such as:
- Alerting clients to hours of operation, policy changes, appointment availabilities, new procedures, and telemedicine capabilities
- Updating clients of the availability, including any sales and promotions, of pet supplies and food, either through the vet’s platform or a partner where the vet practice receives a percentage of the sales
Technology
Public health recommendations and state-mandated phases are still changing regularly, so keeping track of Covid-19 safety practices is still critical in keeping business running. Improve communication between staff by updating email listservs or using Google Docs and Sheets, which support immediate collaboration and multiple editors. Programs like Google Hangouts and Slack enable client service representatives to communicate efficiently with each other and with remote staff.
While you don’t want to inundate staff with an overload of Zoom meetings and new administrative and logistical strategies, managers should be regularly conversing on areas for growth and ways to improve patient care, client experiences, and team morale. Retaining valuable staff and keeping your team as connected as possible is a sure way to keep business steady, and even growing, well beyond the pandemic.
