HJBR-2020-jul-aug

10 JUL / AUG 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE OLOL Physician Group recently em- braced telemedicine because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 500+ provid- ers using telemedicine, many for the first time. How did you roll that out so quickly, and how have practitioners adapted to this technology? When we rolled telemedicine out in 2018, it was still relatively new technology for healthcare providers. This is not something they teach you in medical school—yet. It makes you rethink what it takes to practice medicine. When we have relied on physi- cally examining patients using our stetho- scopes and touch for so long, how can you get the same information over a computer or phone screen? It’s a big shift for both providers and patients. We were fortunate to have already had a team of provider champions to train other providers on best practices in telemedicine since we first launched the technology. That investment in provider training paid off quickly during the pandemic. Without the investment in technology from our system, and the spirit of innovation fromour providers, we would not have been able to meet the needs of those we serve. There is always going to be some hesita- tion in trying new things, but with a situa- tion like COVID-19, we knew that we had to adapt, and adapt quickly, to meet the needs of our patients and the community as a whole. For our team, we had the infrastruc- ture in place to expand our telemedicine services quickly, and focused on ensuring providers had what they needed, and that patients were also comfortable with this new way of connecting with us. We went from 100 providers regularly doing video visits, to more than 500. To put it into per- spective, in the first week of March, we av- eraged 10 video visits a day. By the end of March, we were doing over 1,300 a day. It was over a 10,000 percent increase in less than 30 days. We heard great feedback from physi- cians. We’ve had a few providers who felt they formed an even closer bond with some of their patients. One commented on being able to see the space their patients spend most of their time—gardens, back patios, living rooms. It gave him a better sense of their household and their overall health to see some of the spaces they reference on their visits. They were able to gain a new perspective of how to better understand their health. How have patients adapted to telemed- icine? As with any new technology, some were slower to adapt, but I think they realized the benefit of having this option available to them, especially when in-person visits were very limited. It makes a world of difference for those patients who require transporta- tion to see their provider, when now, they can do that follow up visit (sometimes) from the comfort of their own living space. For some patients, it was getting the hang of logging into their account to start the visit. Any time a patient was unsure of how to get the visit scheduled, or to speak with their provider, we had a team ready to assist them, who walked them through every step of the appointment. Overall, the patients love the convenience it provides them. It’s less time away fromwork and family. Some conditions and patients would naturally be a better fit for telemedicine. Are there any that have surprised your team during this time? Our Lady of the Lake provides destina- tion clinical services for our region. This technologywill help us extend our outreach farther than we could have otherwise. We are fortunate to have adult and pediatric providers who are best in class, and have been incredible at rapidly adopting this new technology. So, if a community has a need in cardiology, psychiatry, colorectal surgery, GI, or vascular surgery, we can accommo- date that with the click of a button. Many health systems have been using telemedicine for years. Are all OLOL Phy- sician Group telemedicine calls from lo- cal providers? One of the great things about our phy- sician group, compared to other health systems, is that all telemedicine visits are handled by local providers you can see in person. Healthcare is a human experience, and we know that part of the experience is the personal connection a patient has with their healthcare provider. Local providers know what’s happening in your communi- ty; they know if there’s a bug going around town because they live here too. And they know you, because everything about your health history is in our medical records for them to see. It’s important to not only the patient, but to our providers, to be able to provide the personalized healthcare experi- ence we were all trained for. You can sched- ule time to meet with your provider in per- son, or virtually, for both yourself and your children, for all types of healthcare services. Do you think the emergency declaration relaxing telemedicine regulations will stay in place after the pandemic? Do I think things will stay completely re- laxed? No, but I think there will be changes that stay around. We’ve seen some forms of telemedicine in services that we never would have expected, and patients now ex- pect the ability to have telemedicine if they need to get in to see a provider, but can’t physically get there. A lot of this will also depend on insurance plans, and if they con- tinue to allow providers to see patients via telemedicine for certain diagnoses. What is your leadership philosophy, and how have you applied it throughout the pandemic? Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right patient, for the right reason. The pandemic has caused us to rethink a lot of the ways in which we provide care to pa- tients. When a new situation came up, as it did frequently, I applied this philosophy each time. How have you addressed the physical and emotional well-being of your staff? My phone became my primary way of