What started as an approach helping an audiology practice stay in business last spring, has become a beacon for expanded patient engagement and growing sales.

It happened to almost everyone.   Patients stopped calling, aware that ‘non-essential’ services were shut down.  And, while patients were still suffering, practices were furloughing staff and struggling to get ahold of patients.

“We developed our application, SEngage, to engage patients on behalf of their healthcare providers,” said James Benson, President and Founder of QM2 Solutions. “Before COVID we were using our system to deliver patient experience surveys and build online reputation.  Then COVID hit and we needed to do more for our customers.”

QM2 Solutions reached out to Dr. Patricia Ramos to talk about how they could help. Patricia Ramos is the Director of Audiology and Rehabilitative Services at ENT and Allergy Associates of Florida and oversees their audiology division, ENT Hearing Associates of Florida.

ENTAAF and their ENTHAF Audiology division is a large ENT and audiology practice with greater than 25 offices throughout Florida.  They were seeing decreasing volumes and were managing locations with decreased in office staffing and providers.

“We came together with QM2 through online meetings on evenings and weekends and laid out a plan for engaging our audiology patients,” Dr. Ramos said.

It was important for ENTHAF to test how virtual visits would work with hearing aid patients.  “Would our older demographic respond?  I needed to review clinical approaches and measure results.  It was all new to our providers and patients,” She said.

ENTHAF launched with a small group of patients.  Within the first week, 146 patients-initiated HIPAA compliant asynchronous visits with the practice.

The patient responses were prioritized and fit into the following categories: (1) I’m fine, thanks for giving me a way to connect, (2) I need supplies or batteries, (3) My hearing aids seem broken, (4) I would like to buy new hearing aids, and (5) I have an illness/condition requiring a physician evaluation.

Within three weeks, the practice collected $18,000 through the newly created remote service delivery channels.  The provider team scheduled 256 additional follow-up visits between the audiologists and physicians at a direct value of $25,000.  Medium term follow-up revenue from the limited program generated $32,000.  Overall, ENT Hearing Associates of Florida E-visit program initiated $75,000.  And it was just the beginning.

“The results of E-visits were real. We proved that we could improve hearing aid patients’ lives while generating revenue through virtual delivery channels,” Ramos said.

“In that first six weeks we showed that by focusing on the right patient, at the right time, through the right communication channel, our customers would serve more patients and generate significant revenue,” Benson said.

The next two articles will focus on the growth of the program, lessons learned, and the impact of new, approaches to engaging patients.

During the Florida Combined Otolaryngology Meeting in November 2020, I presented an overview on trends in audiology virtual visits.  Check it out on the MedAudPro YouTube Channel HERE!

Love this article? Check out Virtual Visits by the same author.

Why new Virtual Visit channels are important?

• A well-planned virtual visit program eliminates visit barriers. No-show research and studies on patient visit patterns highlight that patients often do not call when they have a need.   Phone trees, visit anxiety, long wait times, hurried providers, uncertainty about the reasons for their visit, limit patient driven engagement.  Lack of action by patients who need it delay key treatments that impact health and the cost of care.
• COVID fears, rules, and corresponding changes in consumer choice are reducing patients calling or coming into the office.  While in-clinic volumes are increasing, they will not return to pre-covid rates for some time. Virtual visits give providers a simple and secure way to begin or continue care.
• New clinical channels for delivery with more effective methods for patient triage, allow practitioners to make the best use of clinic time and space.
• Virtual visits create connection for both billable and non-billable e-visits and check-ins increase patient access to your practice.

What are the key ingredients to a virtual visit program?

• Build virtual channels by evaluating visit types and technology, then mapping patient type and services to each channel(s).
• Create a wide virtual funnel by reaching out to many patients.
• Utilize emails and/or texts to create virtual connections.  Secure patient messaging educates patients about virtual visit options and open the door to direct interaction.
• Develop diagnosis, visit-type content to streamline a patient’s virtual visit.  By helping patients efficiently communicate their needs, symptoms, and concerns, providers identify specific care opportunities.
• Cultivate virtual visit, clinical pathways around specific diagnoses.   Focus on chronic conditions and develop internal clinical guidelines to make sure you are quickly addressing patient needs.

Now Act!

Virtual visit programs are dependent on a clinic’s most valuable resource, the clinician, and their professional judgement, expertise, and clinic management.  New virtual approaches that open the door to thousands of patients highlight a clinic’s workflow and ability to respond to patient needs.   Asynchronous visit technology, not requiring real time response, allows for greater reach, but underscores the need to act fast on a patient’s needs.  The good news is that technology, supplemented with internal expertise, allows for more efficient triage.  These approaches, along with consideration to use the most efficient delivery channel, magnify a clinic’s capacity.

What a virtual visit program is NOT.

A Virtual visit program is not telemedicine software.  It is not emailing or texting patients. It is not having a portal. 

It is a comprehensive approach that focuses on the right patient, at the right time, with the right care, through the right channel.

Groups who have implemented virtual approaches create an impressive magnitude of “other” service opportunities realized through virtual visits.  Increased clinic site visits, surgeries, increased curbside services, and home-based services.  In the hearing aid industry, there is a significant increase in remote programming of hearing aids, and hearing aid purchases as a direct result of patient requests.

Maybe the most important way to describe the impact of virtual visits program is to talk about real life examples and the real-life results.   Today we highlight the journey of an hearing aid practice, ENT Hearing Associates of Florida.  On April 6, 2020 they identified the desire to develop a virtual visit program with established hearing aid patients.  The group started small, identifying care pathways.  They contracted with QM2 Solutions to implement an asynchronous portal and messaging system.

The group then began announcing the program and connecting remotely to patients.  As patients responded, they were brought to a customized, patient virtual visit where they answered four questions about their hearing needs.   Patients completed their visit on their smartphone, their computer screen, iPad, or tablet.  

It didn’t take long for ENT Hearing Associates of Florida to realize an impact. Within a week a hundred and forty-six different patients completed audiology E-visits. The patient response ranged from everything from, “thanks for giving me a way to connect,” to, “my hearing aids are broken.” Some stated they would like to purchase supplies and others requested to buy new hearing aids!

While engagement of a hundred and forty-six different patients is impressive, the 256 additional patient engagements within three weeks of the initial virtual visit are maybe more important to share.  Additional engagements included: curbside pickups, telephone calls, and more than 90 face-to-face audiology appointments.  The practice then focused on using telemed software to assist in both hearing aid sales and hearing aid adjustments.   Finally, triaging audiology virtual visits led to face-to-face ENT and Telemed visits.  The impact to the number of visits was real.

ENT Hearing Associates of Florida expanded their clinical reach and deepened patient engagement.  They took time to develop a well-organized virtual visit program and found it deepened connection with patients.  As the program matures and outcomes are measured, they are seeing better outcomes and greater patient satisfaction.  Ultimately, this approach had a significant revenue impact for the practice and has been expanded to address the needs of other patient groups.

Find out if a virtual patient management program is right for your practice. Click here for a Free Strategic Virtual Patient Management Assessment.

About James Benson

QM2 Solutions, CEO & Founder

James Benson is the President and Founder of QM2 Solution. QM2 Solutions, with headquarters in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, provides solutions that generate practice growth and clinical improvement through patient feedback.

Before QM2 solutions, James worked as a practice administrator and management consultant to surgical subspecialty groups including 12 years working with Otolaryngologists. James served executive leadership roles within the Association of Otolaryngology Administrators (currently known as ASCENT), as consultant to the AAO-HNS Board of Governors and is a co-founder of the Large Group Executive Forum for Otolaryngology Practices.

James speaks nationally on areas of healthcare quality, outcomes, experience, benchmarking, and business development. James has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1994) and a Master of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (Quality and Systems Design (2000).

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