Telehealth has become essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a leading virtual care company, PWNHealth has been committed to increasing access to COVID-19 testing and education during this time while minimizing exposure between patients, providers, and the general public. With a national network of clinicians and a scalable and flexible telehealth platform solution, PWNHealth has had the resources to make an impact, but not without challenges.

In March 2020, we had to scale quickly and effectively to support the nation’s growing demand for testing. With strategic partnerships, we have successfully launched innovative models of care delivery that reduce risk, such as drive-thrus, pharmacy walk-ins, and direct-to-consumer home test kits. Four months later, PWNHealth has supported almost 7% of California’s COVID-19 testing and 5% of the national testing efforts through these models of care.

All patients who receive a COVID-19 test through PWNHealth have the opportunity to speak with a clinician at any time throughout the process for additional information and patient education through our telehealth services. The increase in patient participation from these programs posed a challenge for us to ensure that we had adequate resources available for physician consultations and results delivery calls, as well as the technology necessary to support an influx of volume we had never seen before. In response, PWNHealth has grown its physician network by over 50% since March, expanded its call center to accommodate an almost 200% increase in call volume, and developed automations to improve user experience and efficiency for patients, providers, and administrators.

With the growth of our network, we realized that many physicians were engaging in remote work for the first time. To ensure these physicians were set up for success in their new roles, we provided training directly focused on telehealth services and webside manner. As a result, our patients have given tremendous feedback on our physicians. One patient wrote, “Wherever the doctor lives it felt like I was one of her patients and she was checking up on me.”

Additionally, many patients are also using telehealth for the first time. We have developed protocols and resources to ensure we are educating patients on how to manage their care at home through a fluid pandemic where treatment is unavailable and information is rapidly evolving. Part of this process includes sending patient-friendly results that are interactive and educational. Our clinical team also ensures that our physicians are trained and kept up to date with the latest guidelines so they are equipped to answer any patient questions. With the implementation of these processes to provide an exemplary patient experience, 95% of patients say they would use our telehealth service again for a future need.

We also have been able to reach underserved populations of non-English speakers both through the hiring of bilingual physicians and the use of translation services. As of July, 11% of our physician consultations were completed in a language other than English. One of our California physicians, Dr. Mota, writes on her experience providing COVID-19 consultations, “It is very rewarding that I am able to provide this service through PWNHealth that allows me to connect with patients who are searching for guidance and current recommendations by experts to the pandemic that we are facing today. Since I am able to speak Spanish, I find it particularly satisfying to connect with our Hispanic population who are overwhelmingly affected by this crisis. Telehealth seems to have come to its full potential in this particular setting, in which we must limit our physical/ in-person exposure for the mutual benefit of both doctor and patient.”

Through careful planning and strategy, PWNHealth has been able to increase access to testing for patients while minimizing risk. Now that we have the infrastructure and processes in place for a highly scalable model, we are excited to expand our offerings to launch similarly successful telehealth programs in the future.

This story is posted with permission from PWNHealth.