How Health Systems Can Prepare for the Winter Surge with Virtual Care 

With back-to-school season upon us, health systems must prepare for a surge in demand for care. While somewhat predictable, the fall and winter months bring respiratory illnesses, the new Covid variant and other infectious diseases that come as a consequence of our increasing amount of time spent together indoors.  

What is less predictable are weather events that can lead to clinic closures and transportation challenges that impact patients and providers alike. Add to this, the pressure to achieve end-of-year quality goals or complete Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs), as well as increased demand for care from patients who have met their annual deductibles. Despite these burdens, health systems and provider practices must continue to deliver timely care for both acute and chronic conditions. 

And it’s getting harder. With each passing year, the access problem worsens, regardless of the season. A recent report by ECG Management Consultants found that the average wait time for the third-next-available appointment across 11 medical specialties in 23 U.S. metro areas now stands at 38 days. Because the number of days to the first or second available appointment may be artificially short due to a late cancellation, anomalous event or patient schedule availability, the third-next-available appointment metric is a standard gauge of patient access. 

For health systems that are already struggling with capacity and access issues, now is the time to consider specific actions to prepare for this season’s coming surge. But first, some interesting observations on why demand picks up in the last months of the year. 

Some fun facts about the winter surge 

Several factors contribute to the rising number of patients seeking care during the fall and winter months. Obviously flu and flu-like illnesses are at their highest levels during the Thanksgiving and Christmas time periods after people congregate with friends and family. Additionally, during the holiday season EDs see a rise in a wide variety of cases for such things as slips and falls, sharp object injuries, falls from heights, workplace accidents, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and psychiatric disorders.  

In addition, one study of four Boston hospitals revealed that snowy days may result in some variance associated with hospital admissions. Consider, for example, heart problems, which decreased by 32% on high-snowfall days, compared with days without snow. Then, two days after a high-snowfall day, admissions for heart problems increased by 23% compared with days without snow. The lag in hospital admissions for heart problems may result from patients’ difficulties in getting to the hospital on heavy-snow days, the researchers concluded. 

Preparing for the winter surge with virtual care 

To better manage anticipated surges in demand, expand capacity, and provide patients with access to care when and where they need it, one approach many health systems take is to partner with a virtual care service provider – before the winter surge begins. Such virtual care partnerships offer numerous benefits for both health systems and their patients: 

• Virtual care is ideal for minor but urgent conditions such as upper respiratory, Covid treatment or uncomplicated urinary tract infections. Patients can receive care when they need it, without leaving home. 
• Virtual care is also a highly convenient alternative for busy working parents who may find it difficult to juggle in-person medical care with caring for their children and the demands of their work.  
• Virtual primary care solutions can be developed by which patients with chronic conditions can schedule regular virtual check-ins with virtual healthcare providers who can assess condition control and either titrate medications to goal or provide routine refills. Addressing this population reduces the likelihood of conditions worsening due to access issues, helps keep patients engaged in their care plans, and offloads brick and mortar providers so they have time in their schedule to see patients who require in-person care.   
• Similarly, virtual visits are a convenient alternative for Medicare patients who are due for an AWV. Care gaps can be addressed and Hierarchical Condition Category Coding (HCC) can be accurately captured. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers have grown increasingly comfortable doing AWVs via telehealth from home. 
• And let’s not forget that at any time of year, patients with disabilities face challenges in accessing care, such as securing transportation in a timely manner. This is only exacerbated during the winter surge. For these patients, virtual care offers greater convenience, flexible scheduling, reduced waiting times, and less risk of exposure to other illnesses compared to in-office visits.  

Health systems need an action plan to effectively prepare for weather events that lead to clinical closures and transportation issues. Many providers are now skilled at providing video visits and with a proactive plan, an office practice can effectively pivot many visits from in person to video. Even still, existing provider staff cannot always deal with capacity constraints and external partnerships are needed. Ideally a telehealth partner should share the same electronic health record platform as the health system so that the virtual care provider and the patient’s regular care team have access to a patient’s record and care can be well-coordinated. 

A final important benefit of a virtual care program at any time of year is that it allows health care teams to offload routine visits to virtual care providers. This optimizes the time and talents of in-office providers and increases access for patients in need of in-person care.  

Conclusion 

For health systems, hospitals and primary care practices, the busiest, most hectic time of year is just around the corner. By partnering with a virtual care provider now, health systems can prepare to meet the winter surge, expand capacity and access, and satisfy their patients’ care needs so they gain confidence that you’re reliably there when they need you!

Source: elenabs, Getty Images

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