MAVEN Project’s specialty virtual care avoids $11M in unnecessary costs

The MAVEN Project is a nonprofit organization that serves federally qualified health centers and free charity clinics, connecting expert physician volunteer volunteers with clinic providers.

Using telehealth technology, volunteers work hand-in-hand with those on the front lines. They can consult with cases, serve as mentors, provide continuing education and collaborate with clinical staff.

In most cases, consultations with MAVEN Project volunteers eliminate the need for an outside referral, resulting in millions in savings and allowing patients to maintain care in their existing medical home. And instead of waiting weeks or months for a special appointment, providers can get answers for their patients within hours.

The MAVEN project has now grown to 360 clinic locations, from 118 in 2020.

THE PROBLEM

In the US, safety net clinics serve one in eleven people. That’s about 30 million Americans receiving medical care at more than 14,000 clinics across the country. Two in three of these patients are racial or ethnic minorities, and nearly all are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.

‘Even with this safety net, these patients are confronted serious barriers to comprehensive care – cost, language differences, wait times for specialist appointments, lack of transportation, childcare costs and more,” said Dave Segal, CEO of the MAVEN Project. “Even if these patients can get an appointment, they often have to wait months to see a specialist.

“In addition, healthcare providers in healthcare clinics work in difficult conditions,” he continued. “They are dealing with a growing number of patients, specialist shortages and complex health challenges for their patients. These healthcare professionals are doing a great job with the resources they have, but they need faster access to specialist expertise, which is not offered in most clinics. and is often inaccessible to patients.”

PROPOSAL

By connecting specialty physicians with primary care clinic providers, telehealth technology would allow clinic providers to treat patients in their medical homes in hours instead of months. Creating a direct connection meant that healthcare providers could seek electronic consultations (econsults) on specific patient cases, further their medical education through tailored sessions and receive one-on-one guidance to reduce burnout and advance their careers.

“Using telehealth technology would remove so many barriers to care,” Segal explains. “Econsults can provide critical answers within hours, so patients don’t have to wait months for an outside referral, wondering how they will get to the specialist’s office and how they will pay for it. Providers gain confidence through the support of a seasoned specialty provider and it can all happen where the patient is already receiving care.”

MARKETPLACE

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MEETING THE CHALLENGE

The MAVEN project has developed a unique application of telehealth technology that brings specialist expertise directly to healthcare providers in primary care clinics.

“We have made world-class physicians one click away, using telehealth to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and exceptional physician volunteers,” said Segal. “We enable comprehensive care within hours, eliminating months of waiting, additional referrals and expensive emergency room visits.

“To do this, the MAVEN project has engaged a corps of expert, specialist physician volunteers,” he said. “Most of these physicians are retired or semi-retired. They are board certified, licensed, and many come from top education and health programs including Harvard, Stanford, Tufts, Columbia, Northwestern and many more. Medicine is their passion, and they are eager to share their knowledge and experience.”

Then the project collaborated with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Charity Free Clinics (FCCs) to reach healthcare providers on the front lines of care for the most vulnerable patients.

“These providers then use our telehealth technology to build relationships with our volunteers,” Segal explains. “The MAVEN project provides e-consults on specific cases, one-on-one mentoring and continuing medical education to ease the pressure of working on the front lines and reduce burnout.”

RESULTS

With nearly 200 physician volunteers working in more than 60 specialties, the MAVEN Project enables access to two million patients nationwide and serves three thousand physicians.

The impact, Segal said, is undeniable:

• The average wait time for an appointment with a specialist can be more than three months, while volunteers from the MAVEN project usually respond within 10 hours. This timely access to specialist care has a huge impact on the quality of patient care.

• Using telehealth technology, MAVEN Project consultations have eliminated the need for an outside referral in 76% of cases, both saving patient time and avoiding more than $11 million in unnecessary medical costs.

• In 98% of those consultations, physicians shared that the interaction provided knowledge that will apply to future cases.

• Last year alone, the MAVEN project provided 7,800 medical consultations, 600 hours of mentoring and thousands of educational sessions.

“A reach this broad and deep would not be possible without the robust technology platform we use,” said Segal. “And it is growing – the MAVEN project has grown to 360 clinic locations today, from 118 in 2020.”

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

“Design the use of your technology to meet your customers’ workflow needs,” Segal advised. “Make sure they don’t conform to your vision of their needs. Ask them what their needs are and build around them.

“To do that, you need to have the right configurable platform and you need to be able to control the evolution of that platform,” he continued. “Our first iteration of the technology used was designed for a different healthcare use. It was not designed for the service offering of the MAVEN project.”

Because the service was generously provided pro bono, the project could not change its design features. As a result, the clinic provider’s top-level customers navigated to seven subsystems to access MAVEN Project services.

“Today, our new platform is built with clinic provider workflows in mind and is an all-in-one solution that brings everything under one login, including econsults, mentoring, education sessions, community building and more,” said Segal.

“We are making significant additional investments in technology to make it easier for volunteers and caregivers to build long-term relationships, and to ensure patients can access care in a timely manner,” he continued. “For example, in the next phase of development, our technology platform will be integrated with electronic health records, making it even faster and easier for healthcare providers to engage our support.”

The real heroes are the primary care clinic providers and physician volunteers, he added.

“Our community portal allows everyone involved to build long-term relationships and not just one-off transactions,” he concluded. “We do not want the platform to be central, but to enable healthcare providers to work together reducing health inequalities.”

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Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
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