COVID-19 has created another health crisis in this country – a massive increase in depression and other mental health issues associated with being isolated. Further, the opioid crisis has worsened with an increase in addiction.

THE PROBLEM

For Michigan Avenue Primary Care in Chicago, the most pressing need near the beginning of the pandemic was to find a way to adopt telemedicine as the primary service model during the COVID-19 lockdown, especially for mental health patients who suddenly were shut off from in-person support.

"We had already adopted the Yosi Health platform as a robust and flexible contactless waiting room solution, which allowed us to accommodate those patients who did need in-person services at our immediate care, urgent primary care and ENT practices," said Dr. Joshua Merok, associate medical director of Michigan Avenue Primary Care.

PROPOSAL

When the downtown area of Chicago closed for six weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, there were virtually no patients walking into Michigan Avenue Primary Care's office. The practice was forced to quickly pivot to telemedicine.

"Pre-pandemic, we had occasional telemedicine visits that we arranged manually via Google Meet," Merok recalled. "Suddenly, we needed to coordinate entire schedules' worth of telemedicine visits and needed a streamlined custom build from Yosi Health.

"Quickly, Yosi Health engineers were able to leverage our existing EHR integration into a new integration with a HIPAA-compliant telemedicine platform," he continued. "The technology automatically sends patients appointment reminders with individualized Google Meet video links whenever we designate an appointment as telemedicine in our EHR."

"Technologies like telemedicine and contactless waiting rooms were adopted because of the pandemic, but they're clearly here to stay as baseline features patients will expect their healthcare service providers to offer."

Dr. Joshua Merok, Michigan Avenue Primary Care

This fit seamlessly into the already established Yosi pre-registration systems, and continued to fully integrate with the practice's patient database.

"Knowing that rates of depression and anxiety were on the rise, the Yosi engineers offered us a customized screening solution," Merok noted. "We were able to incorporate behavioral health screening – PHQ-9, GAD-7 and CAGE – into our pre-registration package, which has helped us to diagnose and treat behavioral health disorders that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks."

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

The customized technology enabled Michigan Avenue Primary Care to easily designate appointments as telemedicine. The automated Google Meet video conference invitations saved schedulers hours of time each day.

"Our providers love that they can simply log into their Google Calendar to see their telemedicine appointments for the day, and joining the conference is as easy as clicking on the calendar," Merok said.

"It was a huge relief when our patients quickly adapted to the platform, but probably even more so that our physicians and staff found it simple to use as well," he continued. "They're so busy, you don't want to introduce a system with a high learning curve or not intuitive in nature."

RESULTS

"While the automated telemedicine technology was a logistical Godsend, one of the most impressive results came from the behavioral health screening feature," Merok explained. "Using that, we were able to pick up hundreds of cases of depression that we wouldn't have otherwise identified.

"It was amazing how much patients were willing to share on the screening forms, in many instances addiction or mental health symptoms that they didn't always share in person with their physicians."

The practice also was able to free up time for front-of-house staff who no longer were burdened with data entry, appointment management, video conference setup and general paperwork.

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

"If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we, as healthcare providers, need to up our games in terms of the patient experience," Merok advised. "It's the only way to stay competitive in our consumer marketplace that has become more demanding, especially in the area of mobile convenience. They want to be able to communicate and manage their health, on their time, no matter where they are.

"Technologies like telemedicine and contactless waiting rooms were adopted because of the pandemic, but they're clearly here to stay as baseline features patients will expect their healthcare service providers to offer."

Seamless automation and integration of patient intake data also is fast becoming part of the "new norm," with time and cost benefits both patients and the practice can realize, he added. The ability to intake, evaluate and securely share patient data has become a streamlined process because of comprehensive technologies that make use of digital information, he said.

"Some solutions are even helping practices maintain their reputations, allowing patients to take satisfaction surveys while monitoring social feeds for practice reviews and mentions," he noted.

"Digital solutions are the next evolutionary step in the patient experience," he concluded. "If your practice hasn't started to implement some of these, 2022 is the year to do a candid assessment of your practice's needs – and the needs of your patients – so you can start offering them a more frictionless experience."

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bsiwicki@himss.org
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