Before the spread COVID-19 Telehealth seemed like a thing of the future. Experts say that the pandemic thrust Telehealth up 10 years before it would have been likely to go mainstream.
Working in the health care space brings with it a lot of challenges, but nothing could have prepared us for the chaos brought to our doorsteps in March of 2020. As our healthcare heroes were on the front lines, my team was in the background working tirelessly to bring virtual visits to our patients through our mobile app at lightning speed.
Northwell brought in a virtual visit platform called Amwell to bring patients access to care from the comfort and safety of their own homes. This platform has its own app and features but having our patients use yet another tool brought with it a number of additional challenges.
As I settled into my new remote working life, one of the first projects I led was an effort to design an integrated Telehealth experience that our patients could have through the Northwell app and website – using this third party service.
I deployed a variety of tactics to help communicate the experience and vision to align the various teams that had to come together to make this project a success. This was a new world for everyone, including myself – so it was important that I spent extra time making sure everyone understood the language being used and all of the tools and services at play so everyone could see how they would come together. It was important to think through not only the access to the feature but how we would communicate with our patients around it and prepare them in advance.
After this feature was successfully integrated, I created “How-To” guides for our support staff to help any patients who may need extra assistance, and put together demo videos that were used by our physicians.”