Case Study: Flagler Health+ The Transformational Impact of The Collaboratives on Healthcare Digital Thinking
When someone checks into a hospital or physician’s office, they may feel stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and fear— and often, so do friends and family in their circle of care. At the same time, they expect a streamlined, positive experience. Many companies use experience-design methodologies to ease these concerns and improve patient outcomes. One award-winning company, Flagler Health+, which includes a 335-bed hospital that has a 130-year legacy of caring for the community, joined the Digital Healthcare Collaborative to do just that—take friction out of the patient experience through ideation and co-creation research.
THE CHALLENGE
Flagler Health+ was on a mission. They needed to develop a digital strategy that would improve the healthcare experience—and, more importantly, help them become a total care enterprise to advance the physical, social, and economic health of Northeast Florida communities. And they wanted to do it 24/7/365—not just for critical times when patients need acute care but for their overall wellness.
When Flagler Health+ joined The Collaboratives, we worked to identify 10 ways to leverage digital tools to better engage patients and deliver a seamless experience. The Flagler Health+ team used their 10-idea research and past Digital Healthcare Collaborative research as the foundation of their future road map. Valuable past research included what makes a trusted partner, supporting behavior change, data experience design, and what is stupid, smart, and genius in healthcare. The Digital Healthcare Collaborative provided the space, research, and a process for Flagler Health+ to “Think Forward.”
Flagler Health+ & Healthfully: Creating the Virtual Health Village of the Future
After all the planning, securing funding, and ideating, Flagler Health+ announced via press release that they had partnered with Healthfully “to develop and deliver an integrated, HIPAA-compliant consumer platform that will serve as a virtual health village for consumers.” They knew Healthfully’s expertise and their holistic platform could quickly deliver on the vision to advance the physical, social, and economic health of Northeast Florida communities.
The goal of the Virtual Health Village of the Future is to eliminate friction across the healthcare continuum and serve as an engaging, singular space for patients and families. They can access virtual care, schedule appointments, view and update health information, communicate with providers, receive reminders, participate in social communities, and more. Instead of the traditional yearly or bi-yearly patient check-in, Flagler Health+ can be constantly involved in the well-being of their community.
Delivering an all-in-one, easy-to-use tool was essential to this technology build. Healthfully used the research from The Collaboratives to ensure they are taking friction out of healthcare experiences and improving engagement with health. Paul Viskovich, CEO of Healthfully, says “We designed the app to be easy for users to engage with and manage their health and the health of their families. Over a third of app users are age sixty or above.”
360° Healthcare Touchpoints
The Flagler Health+ Anywhere App has quickly iterated to include inpatient, outpatient wellness coaching, and community services. What’s more, Healthfully rapidly added features to the app for COVID fast-pass testing resources and COVID tracking to help the community get back to work. The team at Flagler Health+ found it extremely valuable to have a third-party research firm help inform decision-making and share insights with key constituents like board members and physicians as they refined their strategy, invested in a technology partner, and launched their living lab.
Flagler Health+ continues to fulfill their mission of supporting the community. Through innovative partnerships, healthcare providers see patients virtually via kiosks in grocery stores and local schools. They are expanding their focus on mental health as they work to deploy daily depression screeners and other vital messages using geolocation insights, already available in the app. They also intend to use the platform to further improve the inpatient experience.
A Community-Centered Vision
Flagler Health+ supports four county school districts through a program called BRAVE. The program serves as the hub for behavioral health service referrals for 149 schools across Northeast Florida. Leveraging the Flagler Health+ Anywhere App, BRAVE receives school-based referrals and screens families to the most appropriate support. School counselors and social workers are linked to the platform and can refer kids for a variety of behavioral health services and the “Brave to Speak” wellness community in the Virtual Health Village. Once connected, each student and family is paired with a BRAVE Care Navigator. The Flagler Health + Anywhere App provides a smooth process for electronic referrals, eligibility, and real-time insight to improve well-being.
