A light bulb went off: 'Alexa for telemedicine!'

The chief innovation officer at Phoenix Children’s lived up to his title when he enabled inexpensive, ubiquitous, hands-free virtual care using devices meant for the home in his 750 exam rooms – with no new FTEs to support them.

As was the case with many healthcare organizations, the pandemic ushered in a significant increase in telehealth visits for Phoenix Children’s Hospital – especially in outpatient clinics.

For a children’s hospital, this meant that often for the first time, both parents and/or extended family could attend a doctor’s visit virtually and take a more active role in the care of their children.?

As the pandemic trailed off, many families said while they knew they needed to attend future visits in person, they wished the other family members, who had to return to work, could still be part of the care team.

At the same time, like many provider organizations, Phoenix Children’s, which has a long history of IT innovation, was struggling to find people to work in clinical support roles such as interpreters, social workers and nutritionists – and the few people the organization did have in these roles were spread thin, spending almost 40% of their day walking between clinics.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY