The worst situations often bring out the best in people, and 2020 has proven that to be true yet again. Our clients wasted no time in getting creative and figuring out new ways to use digital health to provide care for patients, often rolling out new initiatives in record time.
Some initiatives were directly related to COVID-19, others were in response to the accelerated shift to digital health, but all were aimed at using new tools to look after patients in the easiest way possible for over-burdened clinicians.
Xealth’s customers rolled out these solutions and saw key benefits – higher patient engagement on important tools, seamless connections with remote patients, an easing of manual burdens on staff, and improved digital app delivery. Below are a few of our favorites:
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Preparing patients to come back for elective surgeries
Baylor Scott & White Health and Xealth automatically send and track pre-surgery screening activity
Challenge: Proving COVID-19-Negative status prior to surgery is now another thing on a patient’s “to do” list. The hassle of getting the test and results, self-isolating and symptom monitoring adds a potential reason to postpone or even not show up for a surgery.
Solution: BSWH and Xealth automatically distributed a pre-surgery screening Twistle presurgery screening pathway to the patient’s MyBSW Health App within at least five days of the scheduled surgery, which suggested a COVID-19 testing location, helped monitor any symptoms and documented the patient’s attestation that they followed isolation protocol. Xealth also provided easy access to the monitoring data, and sent alerts via InBasket messages containing links back to Xealth’s Digital Care. Xealth’s automatic distribution made surgery schedulers happy because they didn’t have to think about it, and patients had easy access to the information. One hassle removed for everyone.
Xealth combined with a leading tobacco cessation program
Timeliness of intervention key to driving patient engagement for Duke Health
Challenge: With a quit smoking rate of 39% Duke Health has one of the most successful Tobacco Cessation programs in the country. In an effort to improve health outcomes, Duke was looking for additional ways to make patients aware of this offering.
Solution: Duke leveraged Xealth to automatically send a video explaining the benefits of smoking cessation to all patients who were identified tobacco users. At the conclusion of the video the patient is asked if he or she is interested in receiving a call with additional information. When a patient responds “yes”, Xealth notifies the tobacco cessation team through an in-basket message so someone can reach out to the patient while the topic is top of mind. Duke was able to show that those who responded yes were 20% more likely to attend the first appointment.
Preparing patients for telemedicine visits
UPMC’s speedy roll-out of video visit set-up instruction saves appointment time
Challenge: Due to COVID-19, many visits were suddenly converted to virtual visits, meaning a large volume of patients and clinicians were unfamiliar with the video visit technology. Technical barriers can waste time in an appointment, or even intimidate a patient to causing a no-show.
Solution: UPMC quickly needed to distribute set-up instructions to all patients who had telemedicine visits scheduled, without burdening clinicians with additional work. Xealth automatically sent education materials to patients when the visit type was Telemedicine. UPMC created first a pdf, then an animated video, to assist patients in getting their devices set up for their virtual visit. Rather than create a manual process in clinics and asking administrators to send the information, Xealth quickly took the assets and distributed them based off the scheduling feed.
Connect with expecting mothers for remote care
Atrium Health streamlines provider workflow to drive clinician engagement with digital program
Challenge: Atrium clinicians were reluctant to engage with RPM solutions due to lack of clinical workflow integration, meaning various programs, including Babyscripts, had low usage.
Solution: Xealth integrated Babyscripts into the clinical workflow in Atrium’s hybrid Cerner-Epic environment for RPM monitoring and education, so that clinicians could both enroll patients and access patient engagement with the app without leaving the patient record – going from eight clicks to zero. Through Xealth, Atrium was also able to automatically invite expectant moms to use the app for education and to receive updates from their clinic, resulting in greater engagement from patients as well as clinicians, doubling invitations to enroll in the initial launch period.
Making it easy for primary care providers to order behavioral health programs for patients
MemorialCare doubles enrollment in behavioral health program through primary care workflow integration
Challenge: At MemorialCare, behavioral health program SilverCloud was available for patients, but promoted via pamphlets and posters that encouraged patients to ask their clinicians about the program or sign up online via a link. MemorialCare knows that mental health is tied to physical health, so they wanted to make it easier for clinicians to take the lead in recommending mental health care for patients, and have the ability to monitor their progress.
Solution:Xealth integrated SilverCloud into the clinical workflow, so that clinicians could both enroll patients and access patient engagement with the program without leaving the patient record. Through Xealth, MemorialCare was able to digitize what had been a paper-based campaign, sending links so that patients could self-select their preferred program from options including anxiety, depression, sleep or stress. Email open rates are nearly 80%, and link back to the patient portal, centralizing relevant information for the patient.
Pre-surgical kits delivered to patients’ homes
Providence emphasizes quality and safety by reaching patients at home before surgery
Challenge: Patients rarely look forward to surgery, and the preparation involved can add another inconvenience. Providence wanted to make surgery preparation easier, to increase the chances that their patients arrive clean and ready to go.
Solution: Providence partnered with Xealth and Medline to send surgery preparation kits directly to patients’ homes when a surgery is scheduled. Provided the address and other details are correct, patients receive soap, masks, sanitizer, and information emphasizing Providence’s commitment to a safe surgical environment. The kit creates a standardized process to prepare a patient ahead of surgery, reducing variability and waste, targeting workflow efficiency, as well as removing ambiguity around who is responsible for prepping the patient, ultimately targeting improved outcomes.
Payer provider collaboration results in positive outcomes
Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin health network partners with insurer Network Health to get patients enrolled in diabetes monitoring tool Glooko
Challenge: Managing diabetic patients successfully requires a coordinated approach from clinicians and the patient over a relatively long period of time. Froedtert was looking for ways to make it easy for clinicians to monitor these patients, as well as remove barriers that might be keeping patients from staying on track.
Solution: Froedtert teamed up with insurance partner Network Health to fund Glooko, a digital health platform that collects and shares diabetes and activity data, for certain patient populations, removing the need for a patient to pay. Glooko was then prescribed through Xealth, which made monitoring data easily accessible from within the patient record. This way, clinicians can access monitoring data without having to toggle back and forth between different solutions. With Xealth delivering the Glooko mobile app for patients, clinicians have integrated access to the patients’ current information which leads to more informed patient care decisions, even when the patient cannot visit the clinic in person.