The move to value-based care was already in full swing when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted. But the health system’s response to the pandemic offers a clue to the bold idea that technology can enable healthcare delivery organizations to provide safe and cost-effective care.
Value-based care puts a premium on using approaches that get care to patients quickly, identifying problems as soon as possible, when they are less severe and can be treated at less cost and risk to patients. There’s been some adoption of simple solutions, but few bold initiatives had gained traction.
In-home solutions
In March, COVID-19 came like a freight train, and provider organizations had little option but to change practices immediately. Telehealth is a case in point; data gathered by Harvard University and Phreesia, a healthcare technology company, and published by the Commonwealth Fund showed that the number of telemedicine visits, as a percentage of all healthcare encounters, rose from 1 percent in mid-March to 14 percent of all encounters by April 19. Years of resistance to telehealth were reversed as clinicians and patients alike became addicted to the immediacy of access.
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Source: News