Children’s health system manages 2,200 percent spike in telehealth visits at height of pandemic
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and Jacksonville, Fla., June 8, 2020 -- InterSystems, a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability, and speed problems, today announced its support of Nemours Children's Health System, an internationally recognized children's health system based in Jacksonville, Florida, as it quickly scaled its telehealth platform to meet an increase in demand for remote visits in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nemours’ telehealth program, Nemours CareConnect, experienced a remote patient load of nearly 30,000 visits in April 2020 – compared to 800 remote visits during the same time period the previous year.
An InterSystems customer since 2013, Nemours launched CareConnect in 2015 as an on-demand platform to connect patients and their guardians with board-certified pediatricians through virtual visits. Nemours has leveraged InterSystems data platform technology to facilitate the exchange of clinical data between the electronic medical record (EMR) and CareConnect when scheduling virtual appointments.
In compliance with the health system’s COVID-19 care plan, Nemours temporarily transitioned the majority of outpatient visits to the CareConnect platform starting on March 16, 2020 in an effort to protect patients, providers and the greater community against the spread of the virus. Since that time, daily use of virtual visits through CareConnect has increased by 2,200 percent, resulting in an average of 1,500 virtual visits per day. To scale services to meet this mass surge in telehealth visits, Nemours enlisted InterSystems to transition thousands of in-person appointments to CareConnect, helping providers and patients to schedule virtual visits.
“At Nemours, we serve more than 480,000 children across five states, two hospitals and 80 clinical sites,” said Carey Officer, Operational VP for Health Delivery Innovation at Nemours Children's Health System. “When we made the decision to transition out-patient visits to CareConnect, we relied on InterSystems to help us quickly scale our platform and transfer patient data from our EMR to CareConnect, enabling a smooth experience for patients and providers alike.” Officer noted that while on-site care resumes during the “new normal” phase, telehealth has been embraced by many families and will remain an important mode of care delivery.
“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare organizations have had to quickly adapt their practices to minimize the risk of exposure for patients and providers while maintaining their high standards of care,” said Jonathan Teich, MD, chief medical information officer for HealthShare platforms at InterSystems. “We are proud to assist organizations like Nemours Children’s Health System in the expansion of its telehealth services and provide solutions that keep healthcare communities connected during this unprecedented time.”
About InterSystems InterSystems is the information engine that powers some of the world’s most important applications. In healthcare, business, government, and other sectors where lives and livelihoods are at stake, InterSystems has been a strategic technology provider since 1978. InterSystems is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), with offices worldwide, and its software products are used daily by millions of people in more than 80 countries. For more information, please visit InterSystems.com.
About Nemours Nemours is an internationally recognized children's health system that owns and operates two free-standing children’s hospitals: Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., and Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla., along with outpatient facilities in five states, delivering pediatric primary, specialty and urgent care. Nemours also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, KidsHealth.org, and offers on-demand, online video patient visits through Nemours CareConnect. Nemours ReadingBrightstart.org is a program dedicated to preventing reading failure in young children, grounded in Nemours’ understanding that child health and learning are inextricably linked, and that reading level is a strong predictor of adult health.
Established as The Nemours Foundation through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, Nemours provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy and prevention programs to families in the communities it serves.
InterSystems Contact:
Jackie D’Andrea
InkHouse
intersystems@inkhouse.com
781-820-5476
Nemours Contact:
Karen Bengston
Nemours Public Relations
Karen.bengston@nemours.org
302-293-4928
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