Spruce’s Telehealth Capabilities Transformed Patient Care

Get to Know Integrated Musculoskeletal Care (IMC)

IMC is a healthcare organization based out of Tallahassee, Florida that is working to improve access to physical therapy and reduce the burden of musculoskeletal care nationwide. They partner with self-insured employers and health plans to manage musculoskeletal outcomes through cost-efficient clinical care.

IMC has created various rehabilitation programs that utilize in-person care through onsite clinics, as well as remote care through the Spruce telehealth platform. Each specific care program is designed conservatively to minimize invasive and high-cost procedures by instead focusing on standardized, self-driven approaches to musculoskeletal exercises. IMC also tracks data throughout the care process, focusing specifically on clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and employer cost savings, so that they can make sure their patients are getting better without incurring unnecessary costs.

Challenge

IMC opened in 2010 to focus on providing care primarily through onsite physical therapy clinics. As their business grew, however, they faced an increasing limitation when working with employers that had distributed workforces and employees who couldn’t get to physical clinic appointments. After researching modern telehealth technology, IMC became confident that video calls, paired with longitudinal messaging, could achieve the same high-quality care as their in-person sessions. Thus, they began looking for partners who could provide a platform for secure, easy-to-use telemedicine. IMC found that Spruce fit this bill perfectly, and they are now able to accommodate the musculoskeletal care needs of a larger, more distributed workforce.

Solution

Video Visits

IMC initially implemented Spruce for secure video visits, and they have not been disappointed. Nick describes, “video-based visits have really changed the way we’re able to connect with members. It’s allowed us to significantly broaden our scope.”

Secure Messaging

IMC’s physical therapists use Spruce’s messaging to ensure ongoing support between sessions. “We have an open door policy. If patients have questions about exercises or they notice a change in symptoms, they can message us and we address those concerns right away.”

Internal Efficiency Tools

One of IMC’s favorite Spruce features is workflow automation, which is a flexible tool designed to increase the speed and efficiency of processes that are common to medical organizations. IMC uses workflow automation to power their custom physical therapist triage process and to facilitate the context-driven sharing of resources with patients. IMC also uses saved and scheduled messages to eliminate manual errors and ensure standardization in the language and educational resources that they send to patients.

“Physical therapists who use Spruce almost always have better patient followup rates. Their patients have a higher rate of care completion and a lower dropout rate when using Spruce.”

How IMC Benefits

Remote Telehealth Visits

IMC minimizes surgeries, procedures, and onsite clinic visits by maximizing care through telemedicine on Spruce. For one particular employer group, IMC treated 81% of cases through telehealth, and their internal data suggest that these cases resulted in “the same type of positive health outcomes as delivered through in person visits,” Nick explains.

Patient Satisfaction

IMC’s internal outcome tracking also suggests that their patient satisfaction is equivalent regardless of whether patient care was delivered in person or via telemedicine on Spruce.

Business Expansion

IMC has experienced dramatic growth with the help of Spruce’s telehealth capabilities. By utilizing video visits, follow-up messages, and internal efficiency tools, IMC is now able to serve employees in 49 states. They’ve also found that their increased incorporation of virtual care workflows has reduced their operational overhead cost significantly.

Want to learn more about how Spruce’s unified solutions can benefit your practice? Sign up for a free trial today or contact our sales team.