Establishing a Centralized Virtual Visit Support Team: Early Insights.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Digital Health
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased telehealth adoption, necessitating efficient strategies for sustained virtual care.
• Health systems face challenges in maintaining telehealth services post-pandemic.
• The Medical University of South Carolina established a Telehealth Centralized Support team to enhance outpatient virtual care infrastructure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and composition of a Telehealth Centralized Support team.
• To evaluate the team's impact on telehealth service delivery in its initial 18 months.
• To assess the scalability and reception of the centralized support model.

Main Methods:

• A multi-method program-evaluation approach was employed.
• The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework guided the evaluation.
• Data were collected over the first 18 months of the team's operation.

Main Results:

• The team supported over 75,000 scheduled telehealth visits, serving over 46,000 unique patients with more than 1500 providers.
• Successful deployment across a large clinical enterprise was achieved.
• The model proved scalable for enterprise-level virtual healthcare delivery and was well-received.

Conclusions:

• Early implementation suggests promise for enhancing telehealth patient and provider satisfaction.
• The model may lead to more equitable virtual service delivery.
• It offers a potentially more cost-effective approach to supporting virtual care operations.