Zipnosis And Healthcare Leaders Form Clinical Quality Advisory Council To Establish Virtual Care Standards

MINNEAPOLIS, June 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading virtual care company Zipnosis today announced the formation of the Clinical Quality Advisory Council (CQAC), a collection of healthcare leaders committed to providing clinical and strategic guidance to the virtual care industry. As healthcare delivery models shift to improve efficiency while maintaining high-quality standards of care, ensuring that clinical guidelines for virtual care are in place and adhered to is critical.  

The Council is comprised of healthcare leaders from health systems across the country as well as Zipnosis clinical leadership. Council members will perform reviews of Zipnosis' current evidence-based clinical guidelines and guidelines in development, support ongoing quality assurance efforts, and help to establish best practices for clinical quality for outpatient virtual care. The Council will also guide more in-depth study around the safety, effectiveness and value of virtual care.

The CQAC was established in early 2017. During the inaugural meeting in March, members set forth a series of goals for the Council and defined several clinical quality metrics for the Zipnosis platform, intended to guide the virtual care industry as a whole. These metrics focus on antibiotic stewardship, including targets for first-line antibiotic prescribing (when clinically appropriate), monitoring of appropriate prescribing for viral upper respiratory infections, and clinical guideline adherence monitoring and management strategies. Identified targets include:

• First-line antibiotic prescribing – 95%
• Guideline adherence for managing sinusitis – 95%
• Guideline adherence for managing urinary tract infection – 98%
• Guideline adherence for managing conjunctivitis – 98%

"Ensuring clinical quality and patient safety is essential – whether care is delivered online or in-person – and we believe that Zipnosis has a responsibility in helping to set quality standards for the virtual care industry," said Zipnosis Chief Clinical Officer, Kevin Smith. "I'm excited and honored to be working with healthcare leaders whose enthusiasm, engagement, and expertise is invaluable in guiding what these standards should be."

As part of its commitment to clinical quality, Zipnosis has engaged in internal evaluations of virtual care quality across the platform and for individual clients since its inception. This includes a 2016 published, peer-reviewed performance improvement study of virtual care encounters for sinusitis. The findings demonstrated that clinicians using the Zipnosis platform adhered to national best practice guidelines for diagnosing and prescribing 98% of the time, far exceeding guideline adherence rates in the typical clinic setting.

Dr. Deborah Greer, Executive Medical Director at John Muir Health and member of the council, is confident in the quality of care patients are receiving. "We've seen high levels of guideline adherence in diagnosis and prescribing through the Zipnosis platform. Being part of the Council is a great opportunity to help other health systems achieve the same quality results," she said.

The healthcare leaders involved in the Clinical Quality Advisory Council are:

• Evelyn Balogun, MD, MPH, MBA, FACOEM - Medical Director Urgent Care and Occ/Employee Health Services, Inspira Health Network
• Brian Bossard, MD - President, Bryan Telemedicine, Bryan Health
• Stephanie Cowan, DNP, FNP-C - Clinical Coordinator, Seattle, MultiCare Health System
• Deborah Greer, MD - Executive Medical Director, John Muir Health
• Steve North, MD, MPH - Clinical Director, Mission Virtual Care, Mission Health
• Dang Tran, MD - Vice President, Medical Practice, Fairview Health Services
• Darin Willardsen, MD, MBA, SFHM - Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer, CentraCare

About Zipnosis
Zipnosis is driving the virtual care revolution by providing health systems and their patients personalized digital healthcare solutions. As a trusted innovator in the industry, Zipnosis combines pioneering technology with clinical insight and visionary thinking to help healthcare organizations keep pace with the changing demands of healthcare consumers. By pairing traditional telemedicine with next-generation virtual care, patients can be treated through video and phone consultations, online adaptive interviews, and in-person care via the platform's advanced routing capabilities - including lab integration. The modern technology stack also supports deep integration with EMRs, patient portals, online scheduling, and other IT systems. Zipnosis helps healthcare organizations position themselves for success by providing flexibility for patients and providers, enhancing clinical and operational efficiency, and supporting continuity of care throughout the care continuum. For more information, visit: www.zipnosis.com.

SOURCE Zipnosis

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