Houston Methodist Daily Telehealth Visits Increases 50x Using Artera
50x
increase in daily virtual visits
260,000
text messages sent in a single day
Houston Methodist has served patients since 1918 and has been recognized as the leading hospital in Texas for eight years by U.S. News & World Report.
- 257 locations
- 7,000 providers
- 1,327,269 annual patient visits
Enterprise health system leverages Artera to quickly scale virtual care and coordinate touchless “virtual waiting room” for patients during COVID-19.
Artera™ enabled Houston Methodist—an Epic EHR customer—to coordinate a surge in virtual care visits during the coronavirus pandemic, amounting to 50 times more virtual visits than prior to the pandemic.
Using Artera, Houston Methodist sent more than 260,000 text messages to patients in one day to educate them about virtual care, schedule visits, and answer questions about care options during COVID-19.
“The ability to communicate back and forth, assuring patients that we are here for them both virtually and in-person is crucial as we continue to safely provide care in the midst of this pandemic,” said Tesha Montgomery, Vice President of Operations and Patient Access at Houston Methodist.
Virtual care
During March, Houston Methodist used its new Center for Innovation Technology Hub to quickly train hundreds of providers on how to deliver virtual care. Daily training within the Houston Methodist Physician Organization over a two-week period led to the number of virtual providers skyrocketing from 66 to nearly 900 across 37 different specialties. This allowed the health system to reach a daily average of over 2,200 virtual visits, compared with an average of 12 virtual visits per day prior to the pandemic.
Touchless Patient Experience
For in-person appointments, Artera enabled Houston Methodist to create a “virtual waiting room” for over 30 different outpatient clinics. A virtual waiting room reduces viral transmission and reassures patients who are fearful of entering a hospital waiting room. Patients waited safely in their cars upon arrival and received text messages instructing them to enter the building when their visit began.
Convenient Scheduling
Houston Methodist is also using Artera for a variety of scheduling automations including text-based referral scheduling, self-scheduling capabilities, and patient appointment coordination for essential routine care.
“Houston Methodist is an innovator in everything—one of the very best. They move quickly, they move decisively, and they are great co-development partners. Truly some of the best in healthcare,” said Guillaume de Zwirek, Artera™ founder and CEO.
50x
increase in daily virtual visits