A Virtual First approach uses remote, digital engagement as the default care delivery method whenever appropriate to improve patient and provider experiences, reduce costs, and improve outcomes.
Virtual First does not replace today’s in-person ambulatory and critical care when applicable. Instead, multiple factors help determine the appropriate mode of care for the situation. It matches the means of care delivery to the case, factoring in the specific patient, their condition, the urgency, and the needed staff.
By reimagining the approach, Virtual First builds on and transforms the value of in-person care by layering in iterative digital interactions and the use of digital products and services. It leverages new processes, technologies, and data to help provide more comprehensive patient monitoring, diagnosis, treatment, and care management capabilities.
Virtual care provides new opportunities for clinicians to consult with patients regularly and outside of traditional care settings. It allows for more effective monitoring and interventions. Using virtual care, a provider’s ability to impact patient health is no longer bound by the limited time spent interacting with patients in medical offices, nor is it constrained by a lack of data.
Virtual First solutions operate synchronously and asynchronously to enable patient support, remote care delivery, monitoring, and self-care. Therefore, it also has the potential to capture a great deal of additional patient data – including from remote patient monitoring solutions – and combine the data from all care interactions to feed data-driven care improvements.
Accenture’s Virtual First paradigm proposes rearchitecting the delivery model around patient and clinical needs, identifying and implementing the right technologies to create a more proactive, convenient, and integrated approach to care delivery.
