Schipper

Sanford Health recently increased access to mental health services throughout its regional system in making additional providers and online virtual-appointment scheduling available.

“We roughly do 100,000 behavioral health visits throughout our entire system and about 20% of those are done virtually today,” said Brad Schipper, president of virtual care at Sanford Health. The ability to make those appointments online began March 27.

“We’ve been doing virtual health for over a decade. COVID was really the catalyst for our system, like it was for every other system, to have to operate and function differently,” Schipper said. “Most places have had a significant drop off after COVID. We’ve had a drop off but not as significant as others, and we continue to do more virtual healthcare visits than we did pre-pandemic. Part of that is because of our geography.

“With our weather in our locations, it lends itself very favorably towards virtual health, not only for those who are trying to deliver the care but those that are receiving the care,” he added. “What we have found out now though, through our own research, and through more research across the nation, is that the visits, on most metrics that you’re evaluating it on, is as good, if not better, when it’s delivered virtually.”

Virtual appointments save Sanford patients 2.5 million miles a year. When providers also can save on windshield time, it means an ability to see more patients, Schipper said.

However, virtual visits don’t work in every instance, and Sanford considers patient safety and outcome in making decisions about that method of care, Schipper said.

“Where it does work, we’re trying to use it more and more, but we’re also using it in nonclinical applications, whether that be with some of the meetings that we hold for our administration, different ways to have support groups for our patients,” Schipper said. “I think we’re just starting to tap into its potential.”

Virtual appointments have proven to work particularly well in behavioral health, based on Sanford’s assessment of its programs.

Making services easier to access as well as embedding mental and behavioral health into family practices also helps remove some of the stigma, Schipper said.

A large portion of Denny Sanford’s $350 million virtual care initiative went to support behavioral health services, which is allowing for additional provider capacity. It is impacting both outpatient and inpatient services, and additional services are expected to roll out in the next two to three years, Schipper said.

“We’re just excited about it because it’s such a need right now, and it impacts every aspect of a person’s life,” he said. “Sixty percent of a person’s health is determined by your zip code versus your genetic code, and virtual healthcare is helping to bridge that gap of zip code.”