Is This the Healthcare Clinic of the Future?

OSF CompleteCare 55+, a hybrid virtual and in-person healthcare clinic in Chicago, offers high-touch wrap-around services for the growing number of seniors in the area. This could be the model for sustainable population health programs.

As the nation’s senior population grows, healthcare providers are launching new care management platforms to improve access and outcomes. In Chicago’s south side, that comes in the form of a clinic exclusively for those 55 and older.

OSF CompleteCare 55+, located in Evergreen Park, is a hybrid clinic created by Peoria-based OSF HealthCare. Offering both in-person and virtual care around the clock, it’s designed to give seniors personalized care and help them navigate an increasingly complex healthcare landscape.

“Really, navigating healthcare should be done by healthcare,” says Kate Barth, VP of OnDemand Services and CNO of OSF On Call. “Healthcare is very complex.”

 “It really should be up to us to navigate that patient into their journey,” she continues. “If we refer you, let us help you get there. It’s not, ‘Here’s a number. Call it [and] let us know if you have any issues.’ We want to do that for you so that you can continue in your busy life and … get the care that you need at the right moment.”

The number of Americans age 65 and older is expected to jump 47% by 2050, to roughly 82 million. With that surge will come an increase in healthcare needs, putting pressure on an already stressed healthcare ecosystem. Healthcare leaders are looking to keep seniors out of the hospital with services that address prevention, health and wellness and chronic care management, as well as programs that meet seniors where they are.

The Value of Navigators

For OSF HealthCare, that means using navigators.

“Navigation can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, [but] navigation to us means whatever the patient needs it to be,” says Barth. That can mean helping seniors understand their insurance coverage, moving them into Medicare programs, or even finding them nutritious food or a ride to the doctor’s office.

“It has to be an evolving role,” Barth adds. “It has to be a role that steps back to look at the big picture, assesses the individual needs of each and every individual patient and guides that navigation based on that individual. We think that is critically important for the future of healthcare and something that we continue to lean into every single day.”

The model, an offshoot of the concierge care strategy that is morphing into Direct Primary Care, requires healthcare leaders to be very precise in how they deliver tailored care to a specific population. To that end, Barth and Sandra Valino Stock, DO, MBA, the program’s managing medical director, are quick to focus on clinical outcomes rather than financial impact.

“We need to focus on the quality of care, making sure that we have strong outcomes for our patients,” says Barth, adding that top KPIs for the three-month-old program are hospital admissions and readmissions and patient experience.

“We are helping patients make decisions that are most appropriate for their health,” adds Valino Stock, noting the strategy revolves around creating a better relationship between patients and their care teams so that they’ll continue to work with OSF HealthCare rather than go to other healthcare providers or try out disruptors aiming to grab a piece of the healthcare market through online offerings.

So they’re deliberate in using navigators, creating a team-based approach, offering patients access around the clock, and combining in-person care with virtual visits.

An Emphasis on Technology

The emphasis on technology is important. Providers are increasingly relying on virtual care and digital health to improve access for a population that might have problems getting to the doctor’s office. That, and the average wait time for an in-person visit is 20 days.

“In primary care, we typically see those traditional visits being made in the practices,” Barth notes. “And while many are starting to dabble in the world of technology, doing virtual visits intermittently and using different tools such as MyChart to communicate with a patient, we knew that it needed to be a little bit of a higher touch and easier access.”

This includes wrap-around services, another value-based care strategy that veers away from the old routine of episodic care. In an effort to reduce friction and time spent on administrative tasks, navigators gather as much information as possible prior to the visit, so that the visit is focused on care.

Valino Stock notes the program is also geared toward helping seniors become more comfortable with technology, a key pain point in care management.

The key to success, of course, will be sustainability. Aside from improved clinical outcomes, OSF HealthCare executives will be looking at how the clinic reduces stress on the health system’s 16 hospitals.

It could also be the first of several clinics designed for different populations.

“We are learning new things every day,” Barth says.

“We don’t know yet what we don’t know,” adds Valino Stock. “So we keep listening to the patients. What do they want? What do they need?”