| | APRIL 20238CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONThe COVID 19 virus has been a disruptive innovator in the healthcare industry over the last two years. Cliché as it may, disruption often stimulates growth and doing things differently and possibly better. This 0.1 micron virus led to an mRNA vaccine being developed in less than 1 year. Over the last two years, we have witness the development of medications such as remdesivir, baricitinib, nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. Unfortunately, the COVID 19 virus also caused 6.2 million deaths and approximately 2.9 trillion dollars in economic losses worldwide. Although the concept of telehealth has been discussed for decades, insurance reimbursement, risk taking, and concerns about safety led to inaction at worst and cautious optimism at best. The delta and omicron variant surges created the needed stress test on health system around the world and the United States. Specifically at Atrium Wake and within the Atrium Enterprise, we have created and implemented Hospital at Home, Inpatient Virtual Consults and Virtual Hospital programs over the last two years. In the winter of 2020 with the support of senior leadership at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health and the Atrium Wake University Group Practice along with the collaboration of Atrium Charlotte, Dr. Padageshwar Sunkara, Dr. Raj Nagaraj, and John Blalock launched the Hospital at Home Program in Winston Salem, North Carolina and its surrounding areas. We collectively identified patients that could be safely discharged from the inpatient service. These patients often required additional treatment such as continued monitoring for COVID 19 requiring multiple liters of oxygen supplementation or intravenous diuretics for acute on chronic congestive heart failure. With the agreement of the patient, the clinician discharged the patient from the hospital with specific instruction for Hospital at Home (H@H) follow up team. A few days after discharge from the hospital, the paramedic in the ambulance arrives at Chi-Cheng HuangINNOVATIONS ANDTELEHEALTHBy Chi-Cheng Huang, Executive Medical Director, Wake Forest Baptist Health
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