Can Streaming Video Provide a Cure for the Healthcare Crisis?
“Which is why it was so attractive for the mental health crises. There’s no scheduling. There’s no calling back. You’re getting somebody on the video instantly, and it’s live,” Wells adds. “You’re able to assist someone instantly through that concept. So we have skill-based video routing, we have grouping, we have routing by need, things of that area that makes it attractive in the virtual health world that we live in.”
The clinicians One Touch connects with probably aren’t idly standing by—they’re more likely multitasking and working on other cases at the same time—but they’re ready to take video calls when they come in. The company aims to have video calls answered within 90 seconds. There’s a messaging and routing procedure that kicks in if no one is available, but Wells emphasizes that happens in only a small amount of cases. While clients have the option of having their videos stored by One Touch, UPIC videos are never stored. There’s no way anyone could access videos after the call because those files don’t exist.
While conforming to HIPPA regulations was a concern, the bigger obstacle was getting doctors adjusted to a new way of working. These operational changes included conducting patient assessments differently and being sure to update medical records and look things up after each call.
Since launching its medical offering, One Touch has gained nine health-related clients, including medical concierge companies, nonprofits, and the Houston Fire Department, which uses video telehealth for its ambulatory and ER services.
For UPIC, some of its calls come after hours from existing patients who need crisis support. Calls can start as regular voice calls and transition to video or start as video. The company works with a lot of at-risk teens. Many independent or large clinics promote it to their clients at their locations or over their website.
You Pick the Time and Place
UPIC got started with One Touch thanks to some good old-fashioned, person-to-person networking. Tucker worked with Sean Erickson, now the CEO of One Touch, 20 years ago, and has kept in contact. When Erickson starting working for One Touch, he let Tucker know. By that time, she’d already been working with telemedicine solutions, but wasn’t happy with any of them. They required patients to schedule an appointment and the interface was like that of a Skype meeting. After an exhaustive year-and-a-half research-and-testing period, Tucker decided she liked One Touch better.
“What we love about it is the flexibility,” Tucker says. “What we loved about this technology was that it was mobile-optimized as well as desktop. It can be placed in libraries, it can be placed in hospitals, it can be placed in any location with a high-speed internet connection and patients can be seen. But they can reach us in high volume at the same time, as opposed to most telemedicine platforms.”
Patients using the One Touch system to talk to UPIC can use a mobile device, a desktop computer, or both. Management software shows how many people are waiting to speak with a counselor.
“The quality is crystal clear,” Tucker says. “It is dependent on internet connection, but our clients have all the high-speed internet that they need and so do we. They can quickly interact as though they’re right down the hall from each other.”
Tucker is ready to put another telemedicine tool to work for a client that serves a lot of deaf patients. Using signers and a video program looks like a great combination to her.
As for One Touch, Tucker says it’s a cost-saving option compared to traditional telecom platforms—although that wasn’t a big part of her decision making. Now that the product testing is done and her company is using One Touch, they’re testing new applications for it. Her team finds it easy to create new skills on the platform, assign the right resources to them, and launch new tools. So besides using it for outside patients, they’re also using the system internally. That’s not as high-volume as the telemedicine use, but it makes work easier.
“For the sum of what we engage in over the phone and now what we’re trying to transition to video is, I would just as soon replace the phone and have it all video,” Tucker says. “That would require our clients putting our widget on their website and those are the things that we’re talking about, right? To advance this. But the ability to see each other and communicate with each other, looking into each other’s eyes, face to face, for us is the key in behavioral health. It just is.”
[This article appears in the September 2018 issue of Streaming Media magazine as "Video: A Cure for the Healthcare Crisis?"]
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