Strategic Transformation in Virtual Healthcare

In response to the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a leading healthcare customer, in partnership with Chamonix, embarked on a strategic initiative to enhance its virtual care services. The project aimed to connect ambulances and hospitals more efficiently and extend these services to rural areas and homes. Amidst the pandemic, the urgency to adapt and innovate became paramount. Chamonix played a critical role in steering the strategy away from heavy capital investments towards maximising the utility of our customers’ existing technology assets and Digital Health resources. This approach was especially vital given the global supply chain disruptions that affected the procurement of new infrastructure and hardware during the pandemic.

Key Challenges

The project faced several significant challenges:

1. COVID-19 Pandemic: The global health crisis necessitated rapid implementation of virtual care solutions to ensure uninterrupted healthcare services while minimising the risk of virus transmission. This required the project to be expedited in anticipation of the reopening of borders, adding pressure to meet tight deadlines.
2. Limited Funding: The initiative had to be executed without the availability of additional financial resources, utilising existing technology assets from healthcare customers.
3. Technological Integration: Integrating a variety of pre-existing technological assets from healthcare organisations was crucial for the seamless delivery of virtual care services.
4. Enhancing Patient and Clinician Experience: The goal was to not only improve the patient experience but also to create an efficient and user-friendly system for clinicians, all within the constraints imposed during the pandemic.

Solution

Chamonix’s solution was to take a comprehensive and pragmatic approach that involved:

• Utilising existing technology assets from multiple healthcare customers.
• Incorporating best practices and insights from other virtual care models.
• Collaborating with stakeholders across the health network to build on existing initiatives and benefits.
• Facilitating the progressive alignment of virtual care services across the local health network.

Chamonix’s strategy focused on understanding our customers existing platforms, assets, and capabilities. It assessed the current and desired patient journey to identify opportunities to streamline and more effectively utilise specialist clinical resources. The approach included a fit-gap assessment of existing assets to determine the most suitable solution, emphasising collaboration and organisational change management to align changes with stakeholder needs and simplify the transition.

Business Benefits

The collaboration yielded several key outcomes:

• Reduced pressure on emergency departments during peak times.
• Avoided the need for a substantial funding increase by effectively using existing resources, circumventing a potential $100M+ funding request.
• Established a Virtual Care Service with multidisciplinary teams, handling over 2,000 calls in three months.
• Achieved a 75% Emergency Department avoidance rate and streamlined services.
• Resulted in significant cost savings and improved patient outcomes for more than 2,000 patients by avoiding new investments and reducing hospital admissions.