How Wellstar MCG built a long-term virtual care strategy
Amwell’s mission is to empower digital transformation in healthcare by connecting physical, virtual, and automated care together to create one single experience. The company partners with some of the leading healthcare organisations in the United States to power their hybrid care ambitions.
One of those organisations is Wellstar MCG Health (Wellstar MCG), based out of Augusta, Georgia. The relationship began in late 2019 when Wellstar MCG partnered with Amwell to support its direct-to-consumer (D2C) virtual care strategy.
According to Lindsey Wells, a senior account director at Amwell, the partnership underwent a rapid shift during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were initially focused on a D2C offering, and then quickly shifted to hosting a COVID-19 screening programme for the entire state of Georgia, which was supported by Governor Kemp,” she explains.
Amwell worked closely with Wellstar MCG's leadership to roll out this platform in response to the pandemic. Amwell also helped Wellstar MCG launch a statewide virtual screening platform that served 25,000 Georgians in the first four months of deployment.
“Since then, we've also helped with Wellstar MCG’s rural care network and also, interestingly, worked very closely with students and educators at the Medical College of Georgia to support the next up-and-coming group of clinicians that will be out in the field,” Wells explains.
Along with its direct-to-consumer program, Wellstar MCG has also leveraged Amwell technology to create a virtual programme for provider-to-provider consultations. These virtual consults span several specialties, including transplants, cardiology, school-based clinics and sickle cell disease.
As part of these provider-to-provider virtual consults, Wellstar MCG utilises Amwell’s CarePoint™ Carts, which are currently in use across 16 different rural hospital locations in Georgia, with plans to grow to 18 by first quarter in 2024. The Amwell Cart enables Wellstar MCG’s Emergency Medicine and Critical Care physician teams to provide consultative services to improve care quality and access to care.
“When a patient arrives at one of those rural sites, a patient might need specialty care from a type of provider or a clinician that just isn’t available at that rural site,” says Wells. “In these scenarios, they work with WellStar MCG to effectively beam a specialist into that room to connect with both provider and the patient for real-time consultation and decision-making support.”
Looking to the future, Amwell is looking forward to its continued partnership with Wellstar MCG. “We will continue our collaboration to support their strategic growth,” says Ashley Blanton, group vice president of strategic account management at Amwell. “Our most recent next steps are going to be Wellstar MCG’s continued evaluation of our Amwell TV Kit solution to increase efficiencies in its long-term care facilities.”
“It's been tremendous working with WellStar MCG,” Wells concludes. “We've developed a wonderful partnership over the past several years and really look forward to what the future might hold for us together.”
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