We are excited to launch our NEW Virtual Care services to help medical teams get back to their mission of providing healthcare to underserved communities overseas.
As word of COVID-19 spread in early 2020, we saw travel restrictions kick in. The pandemic was preventing medical teams from visiting the communities that they have been supporting for years. Organizations began the process of restructuring their support to these communities, including sending supplies or providing financial support instead of providing medical care.
We wanted to help, and searched for ways to reach patients remotely. In the US, this meant telemedicine. But we knew that without access to consistent internet, most of these communities would be unable to support the typical video chat. So, we enhanced BackpackEMR with a Virtual Care process that allows local teams to visit individual patients safely, capture health information while offline, and upload patient charts to the cloud. If the local team requests a remote consult, a notification will go to the requested provider who can securely log into our new Web Portal from anywhere – even their couch!
We also found some unexpected benefits to the new Web Portal and Virtual Care features that will continue post-COVID restrictions:
1. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: Local teams are now empowered with more leadership and control of healthcare in their communities. And, with future clinical decision support tools and predictive analytics to help suggest diagnosis or treatments, we can further empower local teams to see patients for routine visits.
2. COST SAVINGS: Medical teams can now follow up with patients remotely at any time, so large, expensive, in-person clinics can be made more infrequently, saving time, money, and resources.
3. SUSTAINABILITY: Operations can become more sustainable with remote access during future pandemics, civil unrest, or natural disasters.
4. INCREASED ENGAGEMENT: Medical volunteers that are no longer able to travel or cannot afford to travel can stay engaged by providing remote consults.
We have had a great response from medical organizations! Several groups are planning to use our Virtual Care features in December, so make sure to sign up for our Newsletter if you want hear how they go!
And, if you’d like to understand how the Virtual Care platform can keep your medical volunteers engaged, schedule a quick 15 minute chat here and demo the platform today.
