Partnership enables streamlined telehealth at eight locations within Mercy Health's care network
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- InTouch Health, the leading enterprise virtual care platform, today announces its expanded partnership with Mercy Health to deliver inpatient behavioral health virtual care services to Mercy Hospitals across the Northwest Ohio region.
"Mercy Health is committed to serving the whole patient – mind, body, and spirit," said Bob Baxter, President and CEO of Mercy Health – Toledo. "We look forward to utilizing InTouch Health to offer telepsychiatry services to our patients who will now have improved mental health care access when they need it. This innovative technology-based telehealth model will continue to allow effective and timely care for our patients as they seek help for themselves or a loved one."
Utilizing the InTouch Virtual Care Platform, Lighthouse Telehealth (a subsidiary of Harbor) Physicians and Advanced Practitioners will provide psychiatric consultative services within the emergency departments and inpatient units at Mercy Health's three metro Toledo hospitals: Mercy Health – St. Vincent Medical Center, Mercy Health – St. Charles Hospital and Mercy Health – St. Anne Hospital, as well as Mercy Health hospitals in Defiance, Tiffin, and Willard, Ohio.
"We have worked with InTouch Health over the past few years to enable telestroke services, and we look forward to expanding our work to deliver inpatient psychiatric telehealth on a secure and reliable platform," said Ateeq Haseeb, MD, MBA CPE, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Mercy Health – Toledo. "Our experience with InTouch Health has been exceptional. InTouch Health's easy to use technology allows our clinicians to focus on delivering the best care to our patients, which is what we at Mercy Health strive to do every day."
"We look forward to our expanded relationship with Mercy Health, a leading care provider, to enable broader virtual care services on a single platform," said Joseph M. DeVivo, CEO at InTouch Health. "We know that there is a mental health crisis in the United States, and we believe virtual care can help relieve many of the access barriers patients face. We applaud Mercy Health for taking the steps to expand their behavioral health services to increase access and improve patient care, all while allowing patients to remain in their local communities."
Mental illness is one of the leading causes of disability in the U.S. with nearly one in five Americans having a mental health condition and less than half actually receiving appropriate treatment. Lack of behavioral health providers is cited as a common barrier to receiving care. Leveraging telehealth can help alleviate that barrier because it brings behavioral health specialists to more locations so they can meet patients in any location at any time.
InTouch Health will be launching a new Behavioral Health Solution at the American Telemedicine Association Annual Conference in Chicago. The InTouch Behavioral Health Solution addresses the demand for qualified mental health providers at every level of the care continuum, from outpatient and home, to emergency departments and inpatient care, the latter of which Mercy Health – Toledo is implementing. InTouch Health will also be showcasing the configurable InTouch Operating System and turnkey virtual care solutions for stroke, specialist follow-up, cardiology, ICU/critical care, direct-to-patient, employer clinic, and direct-to-consumer. Visit booth #2002 at ATA18 for demos of these latest solutions.
About InTouch Health
InTouch Health, the 2018 KLAS Category Leader for Virtual Care Platforms, delivers its HITRUST CSF Certified telehealth services to health systems with a full range of solutions to efficiently deliver Consumer, Specialty, and Emergent virtual care in any care environment. InTouch Health provides the most reliable, dedicated cloud-based network and virtual care solutions that ensure connectivity for health systems, providers, and patients at all times. Today, InTouch Health supports more than 1,950 care locations around the world – including many of the top 20 health systems – as they deploy telehealth programs across their enterprises. InTouch Health has surpassed 1.84 million network sessions, which includes 940,000 telehealth virtual care sessions over the InTouch Telehealth Network. To learn more, please visit: www.intouchhealth.com.
About Mercy Health – Toledo
Mercy Health – Toledo is a member of Mercy Health, the largest health system in Ohio and the fourth largest employer in the state. Locally, Mercy Health is based in Toledo, Ohio and serves 20 counties in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Mercy Health – Toledo provides comprehensive primary and critical care services to residents as well as a robust physician group, Mercy Health Physicians, Life Flight critical air transport services and Mercy Collegeof Ohio. Mercy Health – Toledo is proud to have provided nearly $110 million in community benefit in 2016 which includes charity care and community health services. With approximately 8,800 employees; 300 employed physicians; and 2,200 medical staff members, Mercy Health has been part of the Northwest Ohio community it serves for more than 162 years. Please visit mercy.com for additional information and connect with Mercy Health – Toledo on Facebook, Twitter @mercynwohio and Instagram.
SOURCE InTouch Health