Bluestream Health, a Platform-as-a-Service that makes it easy to implement and scale on-demand virtual care, announced today that it has surpassed several major milestones with MedStar Health—equipping the leading health system to provide more than one million video encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic. This care milestone represents a first for Bluestream Health and the majority of the more than 1.5 million total telehealth encounters MedStar Health delivered during the pandemic as of early January 2022.
MedStar Health—the largest healthcare provider in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. region—operates more than 300 healthcare locations, including 10 hospitals. The MedStar Health team has used Bluestream Health’s virtual care platform since 2016 to transform care delivery for a broad population of patients.
Bluestream Health’s virtual care Platform-as-Service first began to power the system’s facility-related virtual visits among providers and patients via live video, supporting emergency departments, urgent care locations, and eventually an acute care coordinating center, as well as cardiology, palliative care, and more. Bluestream Health also provides the platform for MedStar Health Video Visits, a service later created in response to COVID-19 to support clinicians, patients, and families with scheduled video interactions.
“There are many reasons MedStar Health continues to choose Bluestream Health as our primary telehealth technology partner,” said Bill Sheahan, chief innovation officer of MedStar Health and the executive director of the MedStar Institute for Innovation. “Bluestream Health’s platform is adaptable enough to support the vast majority of our connected care encounters. They also offer robust interpreting services, both within their system and to complement other telehealth tools when needed. As we celebrate reaching a historic milestone in our work together, we also look forward to further shaping the future of digital care tools and experiences for our patients and providers.”
The Bluestream Health platform makes interpreting services available to MedStar Health and other clients within minutes, supporting hundreds of languages by audio and 20 or more by video, including American Sign Language.
“MedStar Health’s success in delivering over one million encounters via the Bluestream Health virtual care platform has afforded us an amazing opportunity to better understand what drives engagement and effective virtual care delivery for patients of all walks of life. These learnings and future innovations will launch better and more intuitive digital experiences,” said Brian Yarnell, president and co-founder, Bluestream Health.
The accessibility and flexibility of Bluestream Health’s offerings have proven critical to its clients throughout the pandemic, including as communities faced the Omicron surge in recent months.
“During the first year of our COVID-19 response, around 30% of primary care visits shifted to video when this care avenue best served our community,” said Ethan Booker, MD, medical director of the MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center. “In responding to the latest COVID-19 surge, ambulatory video visits once again rose around that level. Bluestream Health has helped us to remain amazingly agile and resilient throughout our pandemic response.”
Looking ahead, Matthew Davidge, co-founder and CEO, Bluestream Health, added, “We are ready and excited to help MedStar Health exceed the next major milestone that serves those who turn to them. I’m confident we’ll continue to reach new heights in care access and transformation through this important partnership.”
About Bluestream Health
Bluestream Health is a Platform-as-a-Service that makes it easy to implement and scale on-demand virtual care. The shift to on-demand care means making it easy for all patients to access care providers 24/7 through multiple front doors and providing the tools to efficiently turn brick-and-mortar workflows into virtual with intelligent triage/escalation and efficient handoff to clinical delivery. Healthcare organizations like NYC Health + Hospitals, QLER telepsychiatry, MedStar Health, and pCare use Bluestream Health’s platform-as-a-service to accelerate the growth of their virtual care business.
Source: PR Newswire
