Opportunity

Like many healthcare systems, the New Orleans-basedhealthcare provider CrescentCare was experiencing challenges providing proper care to underserved populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many patients, particularly older and low-income individuals, telehealth added more anxiety to an already stressful situation due to a lack of adequate,easy-to-use devices, connectivity and technical know-how.

In April 2020, CrescentCare had received notice of the availability of FCC grant funds for clinics and hospitals looking to extend and improve telehealth access for patients who have difficulty accessing healthcare remotely. Another Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC) in the New Orleans area, St. Thomas Community Health Center, was already working with Sano Health, and recommended Sano’s customized solutions to CrescentCare.CrescentCare’s application for telehealth funding was approved by the FCC.

Solution

CrescentCare asked Sano Health (SH) to develop a solution that would lower the barriers many of its patients faced when attempting audiovisual visits and would also enable one-touch access to place and receive phone calls with CrescentCare providers, local pharmacies, and other carep roviders.

CrescentCare recognized the importance of enabling voice callin gto enhance communication and combat social isolation but wanted to restrict dialing to predetermined telephone numbers to ensure that the device be used primarily by the intended recipient for care-related purposes.

Working closely with CrescentCare’s IT and patient management groups, SH created a customized solution, including pre-loadedtelehealth applications and access to the CrescentCare portal as well as email,texting, and voice calling capabilities. CrescentCare purchased a data allotment from SH that was “pooled” among all of its patient devices, ensuring efficient use of data. SH also created a new functionality to meetCrescentCare’s request for an updatable approved list of phone numbers which display on-the device in a pre-populated contact list.

Designing the right patient experience took a number of iterations, and Sano Health worked hand in hand with the CrescentCare team to prepare the initial 475 devices and to train the local team. Since the solution can be updated over the air, Sano will continue to work with CrescentCare to refine and update the patient experience in light of patient and provider feedback.

Testimonial

“Our medical, case management, and behavioral health teams have been very excited about us rolling out the Sano Health device. No one at Sano Health ever told me something wasn’t possible. I would 100% recommend someone working with Sano Health for your telehealth solutions.”

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