How Pathways Enhances Hybrid Care to Bridge the Gap Between In-Person and Virtual-Only Care Models

The evidence is clear—Physical Therapy (PT) is an effective, safe, and versatile option for patients seeking care for musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions,1 regardless of whether that patient is seen in-clinic or digitally. However, that doesn’t mean that each care delivery model doesn’t come with trade-offs that affect the patient experience.

When clinics offer only in-person care, patients face longer wait times, can grow disengaged between sessions, and often have trouble making all of their appointments. Fully virtual treatment options don’t allow for hands-on assessment and treatment, and often remove the local provider from the picture altogether.

But there is a care model that preserves the patient-provider connection while scaling the efficacy and accessibility of care to meet our modern consumer demand: hybrid care.

What is hybrid care?

Hybrid care is the combination of in-person care, virtual visits, remote monitoring, and asynchronous communication centered around a digital platform that helps patients connect with their healthcare provider. Hybrid care takes the best aspects from both in-clinic and digital care and combines them into a single, highly effective care program. This makes it possible to provide the right care at the right time (and in the most appropriate care setting!) to match a patient’s unique clinical needs and personal preferences.

How does Medbridge enhance hybrid care?

Medbridge’s digital MSK care platform, Pathways, leverages the hybrid care model to enable clinicians to reach more patients and provide more flexibility for those who struggle with common barriers to care like busy schedules, commutes, or high costs associated with copays for multiple visits. In addition, because patients get their consultations faster, triage is more effective, directing higher acuity patients to the in-person care they need earlier in the process, while lower-acuity patients receive supplemental care in addition to what they receive from their therapist.

Prescribed by a clinician, each Medbridge pathway is tailored to a specific condition, with the option for the assigning provider to personalize it to meet the patient’s unique needs. Each pathway is broken into multiple phases that build off each other, allowing patients to progress at their own pace as their pain decreases and they build strength. Individual phases are focused on a set of exercises designed to be completed in 15 minutes or less. Every program is reviewed and approved by our medical advisory board, which covers a broad spectrum of clinical roles, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and pain psychologists.

Pathways enables clinicians to reach more patients and provide more flexibility for those who struggle with common barriers to care like busy schedules, commutes, or high costs associated with copays for multiple visits. In addition, because patients get their consultations faster, triage is more effective, directing higher acuity patients to the in-person care they need earlier in the process, while lower-acuity patients receive guidance to get them started on a self-managed or supplemental home program. As a result, providers can serve more patients more efficiently, and patients get better faster. Plus, patients remain in their local healthcare system so they can continue to receive the best possible care. When you do this together, it leads to lower overall costs, which helps organizations in value-based models.

Getting the right level of care, faster

When patients experience pain in their knee, they’re going to want answers and guidance as quickly as possible, which means reaching out to their primary care physician (PCP).

Their PCP will want to give them treatment, may prescribe a pain medication, and may or may not refer them to physical therapy. Pathways gives providers a program they can quickly prescribe to that patient that can treat their condition, with or without a follow up referral. This allows patients to get the right level of care faster, as they can immediately begin a hybrid care home program without having to wait for the follow-up appointment.

Right now Pathways can help patients get care earlier, but soon the process will be even more effective with our upcoming Triage Tool (coming soon!). Organizations can provide a link they can send to patients in advance of a visit (or on their website) that will guide them to a triage assessment. The patient will then be asked a series of questions to determine which (if any) Pathway is appropriate for them.

Clinicians can review a patient’s answers and a recommended care plan in a couple of minutes, then quickly determine the best path forward. Clinicians can guide patients with red flags or high complexity to in-person or virtual care.  They can assign a Pathway to most other patients, providing them with instant access to evidence-based digital care. By putting digital triage out there for patients, you allow them to receive care without any visits necessary in some cases—helping improve access to care and getting them better before unnecessary, expensive care.

The ‘yes and’ approach

Where hybrid care is most effective is supplementing in-person visits (or replacing unnecessary visits), while still providing flexible, comprehensive care. Virtual care consultations and touchpoints can be offered to bridge the gap between sessions. Remote monitoring and asynchronous messaging are powerful tools to help drive patient engagement by giving patients the motivational nudges and clinical troubleshooting support they need between visits. These tools also have the additional benefit of being more time-efficient for providers, helping them reach and support more patients in less time.

Conclusion

With hybrid care platforms like Pathways, MSK patients can get the best of both worlds. By combining the versatility of virtual care with the hands-on clinical rigor of in-person care, patients can expect customized, flexible care plans that meet the modern needs of today’s empowered consumer. Every Pathways program is reviewed and approved by our medical advisory board, which covers a broad spectrum of clinical roles, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and pain psychologists, so patients can trust that they’re receiving the highest level of care.

Learn more about how Pathways leverages hybrid care strategies to support your clinicians in their quest to help patients move better, feel better, and live better—or request a demo to see Pathways in action.