Dive summary:
- Healthcare executives see digital health and virtual care as key technologies to improve the patient experience, but determine the returns on these investments is unclear, according to a survey published this week by healthcare consulting firm Sage Growth Partners.
- Nearly 60% of respondents said their health system offered virtual primary care and remote patient monitoring. Additionally, half said they offered telehealth for stroke care.
- But less than 30% saw a significant return on investment with most of their virtual care offerings, according to the survey. Additionally, many executives said they would need to invest funds to move to a new virtual care platform in the coming years.
Diving information:
Nearly half of leaders ranked patient experience as their organization’s top strategic initiative, a significant increase from just 14% in 2020, according to the report, which surveyed more than 100 senior hospital and health system executives.
Leaders see telehealth and digital health as key tools for improvement. More than 80% of respondents said digital health products impact the patient experience, improve engagement with care teams, and help patients manage their own health.
But linking the adoption of virtual care investments to profitability remains a challenge, the survey found. For example, only 10% of executives said they had seen a significant ROI on virtual primary care visits. Most respondents said they determined some return on investment or that the offering broke even financially.
However, returns varied depending on the virtual service. Only 10% of executives said they had implemented virtual triage in their emergency departments, but 56% reported a significant return on investment.
Meanwhile, many senior executives said they would soon need to upgrade their core virtual care platform or invest in entirely new technology. More than 22% reported that their organization would likely need to switch to a new platform in the next one to three years.
The survey comes as telehealth has become a more common method of accessing health care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual care was often necessary to limit in-person contact.
But policies governing reimbursement for telehealth are not always safe for providers. Flexibilities first enacted during the pandemic that expanded Medicare coverage for virtual care expired earlier this month amid the government shutdown, leaving providers scrambling to determine how they would manage their telehealth programs.
