One Community Health has provided innovative health care to rural patients in the Columbia River Gorge, between Oregon and Washington, for more than 30 years. When COVID-19 struck, the health center partnered with OCHIN to rapidly transform its in-person care delivery model to virtual care, in order to keep its patients and providers safe during the coronavirus pandemic and limit community spread.

Since MyChart Virtual Visits feature a unique Epic EHR and Zoom video integration right out of the box, providers at OCH were able to transition their appointments to the new HIPAA-compliant platform almost immediately. OCHIN’s additional tools, such as MyChart bulk activation and WELL Health text messaging services, helped OCH spread the word about the remote care service and get patients activated quickly.

OCH CEO Max Janasik said he appreciates the foresight and technical support he received from OCHIN to get up and running so quickly. He also reports that the clinic has successfully returned to pre-pandemic patient volumes—now conducting 100% of its behavioral health caseload and roughly 70% of all patient visits virtually.

“I would compliment OCHIN on their decision to pre-build the technical interfaces required for virtual visits,” Janasik said, “and for their attention to the usability aspects for both providers and patients. This essentially made our implementation turnkey and we were able to go-live in two days.”

OCH is one of more than 80 member organizations that OCHIN is enabling with virtual care tools and services, ranging from group video visit functionality and translator integration to updated workflows and billing support.

“OCHIN is responding swiftly to meet the virtual care needs of our members, so they can continue to provide frontline care to the millions of high-risk and socio-economically vulnerable patients who depend on their services,” OCHIN’s CEO Abby Sears said. “But we know more must be done to modernize our health system in the wake of this pandemic. That’s why we are eager to partner with others to increase access to virtual care tools and ensure long-term revenue streams for those who adopt them.”

Read the full story of OCH’s virtual care transformation published in the Center for Health Care Strategies’ Better Care Playbook.