Dive Brief:

• Healthcare executives see digital health and virtual care as key technologies to improve patient experience, but determining returns from these investments is unclear, according to a survey published this week by healthcare consultancy Sage Growth Partners.
• Nearly 60% of respondents said their health system offered virtual primary care and remote patient monitoring. Additionally, half said they offered telehealth for stroke care. 
• But fewer than 30% earned significant ROI from most of their virtual care offerings, according to the survey. Plus, many executives said they would need to invest funds to shift to a new virtual care platform in the next few years. 

Dive Insight: 

Nearly half of leaders ranked patient experience as their organization’s top strategic initiative, a significant increase from just 14% in 2020, according to the report, which surveyed more than 100 health system and hospital C-suite executives.  

Leaders see telehealth and digital health as key tools for improvement. More than 80% of respondents said digital health products impact patient experience, improve engagement with care teams and help patients manage their own health. 

But tying adoption of virtual care investments back to returns is still challenging, according to the survey. For example, only 10% of executives said they had seen significant ROI from virtual primary care visits. Most respondents said they determined some ROI or that the offering broke even financially.

However, returns varied depending on the virtual service. Only 10% of executives said they’d implemented virtual triage in their emergency departments, but 56% reported significant ROI. 

Meanwhile, many C-suite executives said they would soon need to improve their core virtual care platform or invest in entirely new technology. More than 22% reported their organization would likely need to switch to a new platform in the next one to three years.

The survey comes as telehealth has become a more common method of accessing healthcare in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual care was often necessary to limit in-person contact. 

But policies that govern reimbursement for telehealth aren’t always certain for providers. Flexibilities first enacted during the pandemic that expanded Medicare coverage for virtual care expired earlier this month amid the government shutdown, leaving providers scrambling to determine how they would manage their telehealth programs.