Learning From the Pandemic: Virtual Care Takes Root BY S TAC E Y H R O U N TA S , A L A N B I E R , M D , A N D S T E V E N G R E E N , M D
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused all of us to re-imagine how we live our lives. It has also caused healthcare providers to re-envision how we deliver care. At Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, the first multispecialty group in San Diego, that meant putting virtual care front and center. As part of Sharp HealthCare, the leading integrated healthcare system in San Diego, Sharp Rees-Stealy’s 699 physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) care for more than 300,000 patients at 19 clinics across San Diego County. Before the pandemic hit, approximately 1% to 2% of patient visits were virtual, either by phone or video. One month after the onset of COVID-19 in San Diego, a whopping 70% of all our patient visits were virtual. Stacey Hrountas
Sharp Rees-Stealy first began offering telemedicine phone visits in 2014, and in the next two years, we expanded to video visits. Having an early start into telemedicine helped set the stage for dealing with the pandemic. Many of the doctors and APPs were already trained on providing virtual care. Scaling up to more than 2,000 virtual visits a day in March 2020 meant support staff worked tirelessly to ensure providers had the proper equipment and training to conduct virtual care. “We are fortunate that we were early adopters of telemedicine, and we had already trained many physicians and APPs in providing quality care virtually. This gave us a running start when the pandemic hit,” says Steven Green, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group.
Alan Bier, MD
A RAPID TRANSITION Sharp Rees-Stealy purchased equipment to enable physicians to perform telemedicine encounters at home and trained those physicians remotely. We also expanded our telemedicine platforms from one to three to offer all doctors the options that would maximize their comfort working virtually. In terms of hardware, the main requirements for home setup were high-resolution web cameras, averaging $70 to $100 each. In some cases, USB or Bluetooth headsets were purchased to provide better audio quality during telemedicine visits. To ensure that these virtual encounters provided the same experience as an in-person visit, physicians were encouraged to attend “webside manner” training sessions to teach best practices for video. A stipend of $140 was provided for additional hardware purchases to anyone who attended these training sessions.
Steven Green, MD
Software licenses for using the telehealth platform were purchased for all the physicians. Depending on the platform chosen, license cost can range from free (with limited features) to approximately $50 per provider, per month. As the pandemic wore on, clinical and administrative team members collaborated to create a detailed virtual visit workflow to ensure the experience mimicked inperson care.
32 l JOURNAL OF AMERICA’S PHYSICIAN GROUPS
Fall/Winter 2021
