How to Onboard Virtual Providers Seamlessly into your Care Team

When integrating virtual providers into your organization to augment your behavioral health strategy it’s critical to ensure the onboarding of those virtual providers is as seamless as possible. Successful onboarding sets the tone for the entire relationship and working with an experienced partner that manages the process can be a major benefit.

In this blog, we’ll review tried and true strategies our partners have leveraged to effectively onboard providers for long-term success.

1. Assess your resources and lean on your partner

Before bringing on virtual providers, it can be helpful to assess your current onboarding resources and workflows. It might also be helpful to talk with your on-site providers about what to expect and discuss how your new providers will benefit your organization overall.

“We thought in the long term, it was going to create a situation where we could offer more flexibility when looking at full-time staff members. Even if they weren’t working full-time in a virtual capacity, they would have that tool as part of their tool belt. 
So, whether it was because of illness or convenience, it’s an important arrow in our quiver to be able to expand virtual health to include providing services on the inpatient end.”
Dr. James Anderson, Chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Basset

Partnering with a behavioral health organization that takes care of logistical steps in your onboarding process can save you a lot of time and resources. For instance, at Iris Telehealth, our Practice Managers (PMs) help manage the entire onboarding process and the day-to-day logistics after onboarding completes.

Our PMs ensure providers feel supported throughout their onboarding process and have resources they need, whether that’s the right equipment, or assistance with things like the EMR, or general support.

2. Check all your credentialing boxes to ensure desired start date

Onboarding the right provider types and specialists might mean working with a provider who lives in another state. When that happens, you may need to allocate more time to that provider’s licensing and credentialing processes. In some circumstances, credentialing can take months and delay a provider’s start time, so it’s best to get started as soon as possible to avoid any road bumps.

When we’re working to onboard providers, our credentialing team stays in close contact with clinicians, providing follow-up and retrieving documentation to ensure the process moves forward as efficiently as possible.

Our Medical Staff Services (MSS) team can estimate the length of time credentialing  will take based on your state’s requirements and provide an accurate start date.

Iris Providers Share Their Experience with Virtual Care

 

 

At Iris, we’ve achieved 96% of on-time start dates, ensuring clinicians can start providing care as soon as possible.

 

 

 

3. Conduct a tech check to ensure everything runs smoothly

Working in a virtual environment versus an in-person one comes with unique considerations. For example, virtual providers may require special equipment or you may need to ensure they have seamless access to your EMR. For successful onboarding, it’s crucial to conduct tech checks and have trial run throughs. While many providers are familiar with virtual care, some may need assistance.

When you’re working with patients virtually, it’s important to ensure everything goes smoothly. For example, providers should confirm their audio is working properly, their backgrounds are appropriate, and there aren’t any interruptions.

“We have our systems in place in terms of our morning rounds. We have the computer system up and running. We recently just got a fish-eye lens camera, so I have better visibility of seeing everyone in the morning meetings, which has been fantastic.”
Dr. Tisa Ayuso, Virtual Medical Director, Basset Health Network

 

Ensuring your processes are thorough is extremely important and partnering with an organization that values quality is crucial. At Iris, we run all tech checks for providers and deliver 24/7 IT support during onboarding and beyond – your virtual provider is never left alone to deal with technical snags and your on-site team’s resources aren’t eaten up by troubleshooting technology.

Along with technical checks, confirming familiarity with the EMR is also important. Our PMs ensure they know as much about your EMR as the provider does – that way they can be of assistance if ever needed.

4. Create a trusted training plan and prep for necessary steps

Upon your provider’s first day, there will be a lot for them to learn, and having a structured plan in place can be incredibly useful. Whether that looks like scheduling intro meetings for them with on-site providers or letting them explore the EMR before they see their first patient, giving them tools to settle to their new role can be a huge help.

It’s also helpful to think of your provider as you would as an on-site team member – ensuring they understand the workflows and inviting them to meetings.

When creating your onboarding plan, here are a few trainings you might consider:

  • IT orientation
  • HR orientation
  • Support staff introductions
  • EMR training
  • Conducting a dry run

At Iris,  we account for these trainings and considerations when we help onboard a new provider. We also go over important trainings like crisis overview, data entry, appointment scheduling, emergency protocols, and much more.

Want some extra help with onboarding? Here’s where Iris fits in.

With all the logistical considerations that come along with onboarding a virtual provider, having a partner that’s been there before can serve as a huge advantage.

Want to learn more about how Iris can help your organization make provider onboarding seamless? Contact us today!

How Virtual Care Can Support Value-Based Care

Achieving value-based care for your health system can increase quality patient care, improve provider satisfaction, and reduce total cost of care for your organization.

But how can your health system achieve these benefits? Keep reading to learn how to advance your journey toward value-based care in a scalable and financially sustainable way.

Value-based care improves patient outcomes

Value-based care helps hold providers accountable for improving patient outcomes and gives them more flexibility to provide the right care at the right time.

While many health systems aim to provide value-based care, it’s not always possible given the need to treat a large variety of ages, acuities, and diagnoses.

For example, due to increasing patient volumes, many hospitals must triage patients who need referrals and immediate help in the ED. This approach causes delayed care and no follow-up, creating a barrier to providing the care that patients need and deserve.

Due to growing referral queues, follow-up challenges, and inefficient workflows, helping patients receive a high level of care isn’t always an option. Before an organization can be proactive and lean into a value-based care model, they must help patients with effective care that facilitates better patient outcomes and fills gaps in ambulatory and post-acute behavioral health care. 

Fortunately, strategic and purposeful virtual behavioral health care services can help health systems address need in their ED and throughout their hospital.

Filling gaps in care across the behavioral health continuum

Every health system faces a hierarchy of needs regarding patient care, and helping those with the highest acuity is top priority. To help the most patients and remain financially sustainable, investing in the right behavioral health programs and resources is essential.

What does a financially sustainable behavioral health program look like in practice? Let’s take a look at two essential solutions health systems are leveraging today:

  • On-Demand Services: This solution helps organizations decrease the burden on their care teams by providing 24/7 ED support – improving wait times and costly and inefficient psychiatric boarding in the hospital.
  • Virtual Clinic: By integrating behavioral health through the patient journey, this solution helps improve holistic care and ultimately decrease long-term costs.

Both of these solutions deploy fully integrated quality tracking and data analytics to drive optimization and ensure these programs run effectively and continue improving patient outcomes.

Benefits of value-based behavioral health care

Once an organization achieves value-based behavioral health care for their population, they reap many benefits, some of which, according to The Commonwealth Fund include reduction in cost care and improvement of quality of care. The Commonwealth Fund also highlights how value-based care can transform collaboration and allow providers to spend more time facilitating care related to counseling or screening for social needs.

Additionally, according to a behavioral health analysis by Evernorth Health Services, treating behavioral health conditions in outpatient care is directly tied with a reduction in medical and pharmacy costs. In their analysis, they highlight savings up to $2,565 per person over the 15 months following a diagnosis and up to $3,321 per person over the 27 months following a diagnosis.   

Here are a few other key benefits that value-based behavioral health care can provide:

  • Healthier and more satisfied patient population
  • More fulfilled providers facilitating quality care
  • Lower total cost of care that helps you meet financial objectives
  • Better care so patients don’t escalate

At Iris Telehealth, our partners have successfully leveraged our services and helped move their organization towards a value-based care model. At Geisinger Health, we’ve helped procure the following results with Bridge Care Services:

  • 83% reduction in referral backlog (18,000 – 3,000) within 6 months
  • 40 % of their psychiatry referrals were diverted to a lower, more cost-effective level of care
  • 38% improvement in their patient’s depression symptoms over eight weeks of care

To read the full story, check out our case study outlining how they leveraged our Bridge Care Services program.

Get started on your journey towards value-based care mental health services

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your organization help your hospital or health system address patient needs in your community, contact us today

How Telehealth Creates Safety and Comfort for Patients and Providers

Iris clinicians facilitate top-quality behavioral health care – averaging 2.3M patient encounters every year. We are proud of the work our providers do every day to fill care gaps and support healthcare organizations across the country by providing their communities with timely access to exceptional care.

Every month, we sit down with one of our providers to spotlight the amazing work they’re doing every day and the impact they’re making on the communities they serve. This month, we’re sitting down to talk with Dr. Sean Hawkins!

Q. How does telehealth compare to in-person work?

A. The first thing on the top of the list is the contrast from where I was over a year ago – which was commuting probably an hour and a half a day. Then, there’s the extra 20 or 30 minutes you tack on to either end to make sure you’re not going to be late – accounting for traffic and accidents.

I really don’t miss the commute and I’m grateful to have more control over my day. I can customize more of my day and have more flexibility with my schedule. If I start my day an hour or two before my workday starts, I know exactly when I can sit down and when I can be there for my family. All those things are nice.

Q. How does telehealth support holistic care?

A. I have a nurse that’s present 90% of the time and a medical assistant that’s available other times. We see them at the beginning of every shift and in between every patient. We keep in regular contact. We also develop relationships with most of the employees.

There are behavioral health techs or care assistants present 24 hours a day. There are certainly people that I haven’t met that are overnight, but I do get to meet a large majority of the day shift employees, and I have some amount of communication with different people, even if I haven’t met them.

We review notes together. It feels like being part of a team with eight therapists – our nurse, a few medical assistants, and the leadership team. We have regular communication with that whole team, which I really enjoy.

At the top of the list is the other Iris psychiatrist – I get to see them face-to-face in a team meeting each week. We’re frequently talking on this side about different issues that come up.

Q. How does telehealth foster connection with patients virtually?

A. Telehealth helps patients in expected and unexpected ways. We do some outpatient visits – I think everybody learned a bit about that during the COVID-19 pandemic. But for me, it’s always a surprise when I’m introduced to somebody’s significant other, their family, dogs or the area where they live in a way that I never would’ve seen previously.

Additionally there are a lot of people who have been through traumatic events with men where they wouldn’t want to be in a closed room with a male practitioner and would not feel comfortable.

In fact, a lot of people I worked with in-person, would come in for a first visit and then back out the door and say, “I didn’t realize you were going to be a man. I can’t do this.”

I think that has been a lot better virtually to the extent that part of my first conversation with people is letting them know about boundaries, and if they’re not feeling safe or comfortable, I let them know they can always leave the room, and I’ll disappear. But if they’re not comfortable doing that, they could close the laptop.

There’s always that level of comfort for some people who have been through really difficult things like abuse and don’t feel as comfortable sharing a physical space with someone.

People who receive dialectical behavioral therapy can struggle with boundaries. It can be uncomfortable being a male provider in a small, closed room with no windows with a client who may have trouble with boundaries. There’s comfort on both ends knowing there’s no concern about some of the obvious things – where I might otherwise feel the need to have a chaperone present just for everybody’s comfort.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A. The most rewarding parts are the same things that would be rewarding in person – seeing people make changes in their lives that are important to them over time. And feeling like I have some part of that is always nice. It’s mostly about an overwhelming sense of gratitude that someone opens up a part of their life where they’re vulnerable and where they’re trying to change or can change while I’m present.

Q. Why do you think telehealth is the future of mental health care?

A. The first thing that occurs to me is the geographical barriers. There are parts of the country where it’s hard to recruit psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Telehealth helps cut out a two-hour commute or help patients overcome cost prohibitive transportation.

A lot of patients are working long days, and the last thing I want to do is tack my visit onto the to the end of that and have them drive an unsafe two hours. I think for some people it’s safety in a literal sense.

Telehealth creates greater comfort than patients would have if they came into a public setting. There’s also stigma and shame that can come along with in-person care. I think it’s a lower energy barrier for people and there’s a ton of reasons why telehealth is here to stay and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Q. Anything you’d like to share about your experience with Iris?

A. I’m really glad to be here. This is a dream job for me in a lot of ways.

At Iris, we believe our providers should be respected, valued, and applauded for the work they do, and we couldn’t be prouder to say, “thank you” to our very own Dr. Hawkins. If you’d like to learn more about working for Iris Telehealth, contact us today.