The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for patients to physically receive care safely at FCHC. Due to state regulations and social distancing guidelines, it wasn't uncommon to see patients delaying preventative care during the height of the pandemic. FCHC's 500 employees and providers needed to identify safe, new ways to maintain patient care delivery.
Florida Community Health Centers chooses to go virtual to enhance patient care
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for patients to physically receive care safely at FCHC. Due to state regulations and social distancing guidelines, it wasn't uncommon to see patients delaying preventative care during the height of the pandemic. FCHC's 500 employees and providers needed to identify safe, new ways to maintain patient care delivery.
The solution
Knowing they needed a plan to support vulnerable, high-risk patients in their community, FCHC engaged Qure4u to implement a virtual care strategy.
In August of 2020, FCHC and Qure4u launched telehealth services to ensure that the most underserved segments of the population could see their doctor virtually without increasing their risk of contracting COVID-19. This also allowed those without easy access to transportation to continue receiving care.
To further ensure that patients didn't neglect important preventative care, FCHC also turned to Qure4u to bolster the safety of in-person visits once those resumed. FCHC and Qure4u implemented digital check-in to offer patients a way to easily sign in for appointments, fill out paperwork, and pay copays, all from their mobile device, limiting physical in-office interactions.
The addition of Qure4u DriveUp™ functionality enabled FCHC to add COVID-19 screenings to digital workflows to further reduce the risk of exposure. Staff was able to send a quick link once a patient arrives to get real-time responses to a COVID-screening questionnaire. Any potential COVID-positive responses were immediately converted to a telehealth visit using the same Qure4u platform for the entire encounter.
In July of 2021, FCHC kicked off a remote patient monitoring (RPM) program focused on hypertension patients. Each enrollee in the RPM program is given a home kit consisting of a scale and a blood pressure cuff to use to monitor and report blood pressure readings from home. The goal is to keep patients connected between visits for proactive monitoring and early intervention when needed.
"We needed to evolve to a digital engagement strategy that not only captured patients' attention, but kept them fully engaged in their care."
The results
As a result of implementing Qure4u's solutions, Florida Community Health Centers (FCHC) has been able to safely maintain care delivery throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and is now positioned to support virtual access to care moving forward.
"Given the demographics of our patient population, we knew they were at a significantly increased risk of contracting and becoming seriously ill with COVID-19," said Dr. Miquel, Chief Medical Officer at FCHC. "When the numbers started to rise, we immediately called our contact at Qure4u, and they have been with us every step of the way. They have not only ensured we're optimizing the system fully, but they have also helped us to develop and deploy new functionality, such as COVID screenings. This has been a game-changer."
"Digital health and telehealth from Qure4u allowed us to seamlessly transition from in-person to virtual visits without any impact on the quality or patient experience," Dr. Miquel said. "The patient interfaces are so easy to use. Even in our most underserved populations, the patients were still able to successfully schedule and obtain a telehealth visit."
Although the program is still in early stages, initial RPM program utilization is off to a promising start.