One year ago today the World Health Organization first called the COVID-19 outbreak, a pandemic. The restrictions that were slowly taking over the US turned into a full-blown shutdown. Zipnosis, like many other organizations across the country, closed the office for the “next two weeks” in an effort to limit spread and exposure.
That was the last time I sat in the office with the entire Zipnosis team.
The past year has transformed nearly every aspect of our world. The profound changes we’ve seen throughout our daily lives also hit our own Zipnosis model. We flipped from our historic use patterns—referring sick patients to be seen in person—to our new COVID-19 model. That model transformed into a new way of healthcare delivery across all specialties; allowing nearly all patients, regardless of condition or ailment, to be evaluated and treated by local providers, virtually.
It’s been devastating, overwhelming, and tragic at times but the past year has served as an opportunity to reimagine how we deliver care. The power of multi-modal virtual care (especially asynchronous) in treating high patient volumes has been proven throughout the pandemic Let’s take a look at some of the historic numbers we saw on the Zipnosis platform.
Patients screened and treated for COVID-19
This time last year we screened and treated nearly 350,000 patients in just ONE month. But March wouldn’t be our only busy month—we also saw notable spikes in July, October, November, and January.
Patients tested for COVID-19
More than 151,970 lab orders were completed, bringing fast, efficient COVID-19 testing to patients nationwide.
COVID-19 held the majority of virtual visits in 2020, but we still saw a steady rise in the number of visits for non-COVID-related conditions—proving virtual care is here to stay.
While we’re still trying to make sense of the last 12 months, every day seems to have a little more light than the last. I’m optimistic about what this year holds and how virtual care will continue to play a key role in the innovation of care delivery.
