Hybrid care blends the convenience and efficiencies of virtual care with the personalization and attention of in-person care. Through seamless digital-first experiences, including intake, triage, routing, and escalation, this approach streamlines the patient journey, seamlessly transitioning from virtual to in-person care when necessary. An essential component of effective care enablement, this integration not only enhances care quality and patient outcomes but also maximizes healthcare efficiency, empowering providers to deliver better, faster care while addressing the growing demands on clinical capacity.
What is Hybrid Care?
Hybrid care is traditionally defined as seamless care delivery using the best of both virtual and in-person care, prioritizing the mode of delivery based on a patient’s need. This common definition still implies a siloed approach to care.
As in most industries, consumers expect a virtual-first experience. That means prioritizing digital interactions whenever possible, so care is more seamlessly integrated into workflows and our everyday lives. In a true hybrid environment, the experience should look and feel cohesive and personalized, whether a patient finds you in-person at a clinic or virtually via the Digital Front Door®. Interested in strategies for creating an effective Digital Front Door®? Check out that blog.
The Benefits of Hybrid Care in Different Care Settings
Virtual-First Urgent Care & Specialty Care
- Reduce wait times and decongest waiting rooms using asynchronous virtual care when in-person care is not required.
- Supplement in-person care with automated digital clinical symptom gathering and digital care plans to accelerate care delivery and increase throughput while maintaining quality and improving care plan adherence.
Virtual-First Primary Care
- Treat patients up to 10 times faster for common needs like prescription refills, URIs, UTIs, and hundreds of other conditions.
- Prioritize in-person care for the patients who need it most.
- Longitudinally engage patient panels with reminders for annual visits and timely check-ins via conversational AI that triages and prioritizes interventions between visits.
Virtual-First Emergency Department
- Drive efficiency for nursing and admin staff with automated digitized intake for registration and symptom gathering.
- Automate digital care plans, follow-up care, and primary care provider connections with digital discharge.
- Bypass manual nurse outreach programs and improve outcomes with Post-ED pathways that drive adherence and increase follow-up care appointment completion.
Virtual-First Care for Stronger Patient-Provider Relationships
Contrary to concerns about technology creating barriers between patients and their providers, virtual-first care can foster deeper connections. Dr. Jay Parkinson, a pioneer in asynchronous care, emphasizes that virtual relationships allow for more accessible, empathetic, and effective healthcare. This approach strengthens trust and provides timely communication, improving both patient satisfaction and care outcomes.
Understanding Async-First Virtual Care
There are two forms of virtual care that can be implemented into the hybrid care model. Synchronous care occurs in real-time between a patient and provider via video, phone, or chat, closely resembling traditional in-person visits. Meanwhile, asynchronous telemedicine enables care delivery that is not simultaneous or concurrent, allowing patients to submit information and receive treatment without immediate provider interaction.
To handle over 2,000 unique diagnoses, Fabric’s asynchronous platform offers flexibility for providers to handle a patient’s case appropriately by:
- Diagnosing and treating completely asynchronously
- Stepping up to other modes of care (phone, chat, or video) to gather more information
- Triaging and routing a patient to the appropriate point of care
The Asynchronous Care Advantage
While synchronous care—such as video, phone, and chat-based visits—offers convenience, it often mirrors the time demands of traditional in-person appointments. Providers are limited by the same time constraints, leading to longer waits and restricted availability, especially during peak hours. This one-to-one interaction model doesn’t address the growing clinical capacity constraints healthcare systems face today.
Asynchronous care offers a critical solution by allowing providers to treat patients without real-time interaction. Meanwhile, patients benefit from increased convenience, faster treatment, and high-quality care as they answer questions about their symptoms and receive treatment recommendations on their own time.
This method significantly reduces provider work time to just 89 seconds for low-acuity cases that can be diagnosed completely asynchronously. By handling intake and symptom gathering upfront, patients are efficiently escalated to video, chat, or in-person care only when necessary, streamlining the entire visit process.
Asynchronous care stands out as a powerful tool in modern healthcare delivery, addressing challenges related to affordability, accessibility, provider shortages, burnout, and more.
Fabric’s Virtual-First Approach to Hybrid Care
Fabric’s care enablement system offers an efficient, multimodal, and more affordable way to care. Connect with patients through intelligent online interviews, video visits, phone calls, and chats, routing them to in-person care when appropriate. When patients arrive in person, Fabric manages intake, clinical symptom gathering, and more to reduce admin work for nurses and streamline care. With patient demand and provider staffing shortages on the rise, clinical capacity is quickly becoming healthcare’s most valuable resource. Leverage Fabric’s virtual care solutions and clinical intelligence engine to accelerate care delivery and create more time for the patients who need it most.
To dive deeper into the research behind Fabric’s virtual-first approach and discover how hybrid care integrates into Fabric’s comprehensive end-to-end care enablement system, download our Guide to Digital Transformation and Care Enablement.
