Envision Healthcare, a leading national medical group, has delivered more than 130,000 patient visits across 34 states through its virtual health platform since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Virtual health strengthens Envision's support of clinicians and the group's hospital and health system partners who are caring for patients and working to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. As patients and doctors resume safe, in-person visits over time, Envision's investment in enhanced virtual technologies allows for a more efficient and accessible hybrid model of care delivery. Envision clinicians use virtual health technology in a variety of settings, including hospitals, office-based practices, urgent care facilities, and post-acute and long-term care settings.
"With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have accelerated and enhanced the deployment of crucial resources that protect both patients and clinicians," said Kristin Darby, Chief Information Officer of Envision Healthcare. "Envision clinicians have long used virtual health resources like tele-radiology, tele-stroke and tele-neurology to provide quality care when patients need it most. As a medical group that has been driving innovative healthcare solutions, we'll continue to build upon our efforts to keep our communities safe and healthy and provide patients quality, timely care."
Through virtual health, clinicians are providing telemedicine consults to patients, assessing their conditions and determining whether they need COVID-19 testing or follow-up care. Clinicians are also using virtual health in the emergency department and intensive care unit to support patient treatment. In addition, the technology enables clinicians to safely bring families to the bedside to help comfort patients.
"At our office-based practices, we have seen a significant increase in patients aged 65 and older seeking telemedicine treatment," said Matthew Bush, MD, President of Integrated Markets, at Envision Healthcare. "Virtual health has been essential to care delivery during this pandemic, particularly for at-risk and vulnerable populations. As we expand our virtual health services across states and medical sites, we are seeing more patients embrace the resource as a way to receive quality, patient-centered care. Patients' health and safety are driving principles, and we will continue evolving our services to meet the changing needs of our communities."
Envision has taken a leading position in responding to America's call for COVID-19 care. The national medical group's actions to support clinicians, healthcare partners and patients includes:
- Rapidly mobilizing to meet the need for more physicians and advanced practice providers across the nation.Envision has provided support to 55 medical sites by deploying more than 500 clinicians to care for COVID-19 patients. Anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists from the anesthesiology provider team have worked to meet unprecedented demand for care. Clinicians will continue to be deployed to address surging hot spots across the country.
- Securing more than 5 million items of PPE, including masks, face shields, gowns, and goggles to support Envision's clinicians and hospital partners.This PPE is being delivered to areas of greatest need.
- Treating every patient regardless of their ability to pay.Envision has committed to working with all parties to ensure no COVID-19 patient is burdened with unexpected costs. We will not send patients surprise medical bills and will work to ensure patients are only responsible for in-network cost-sharing.