Sustaining Virtual and Digital Health Beyond the COVID Pandemic: Strategic Questions for Health Care Leaders

As hospitals grapple with how virtual and digital health will change the health care landscape, it’s hard to ignore its continued influence and disruption since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago. Care models were operationalized in virtual environments at an exponential pace, and this dramatic shift has forced a reimagination of how to better meet patients’ needs. Vizient and its subsidiary Sg2 explored the rate of adoption nationwide, and how virtual and digital health was stood-up or expanded in response to COVID.

A survey of 55 member organizations in the fall of 2020 assessed organizations’ response to, and changes implemented to understand strategic and operational priorities to support short-term goals and longer-term growth initiatives. The survey found that ambulatory visits occurring virtually represented only 0.3% of visits before March 2020 but grew some 200% as of April 2020. Though virtual volumes leveled off between 19–25% through January 2021, the degree of impact will continue to transform the health care ecosystem.