MaineGeneral Health

Laura Mrazik

Can you shed some light on your career path that led to your current position at the organization?

I’ve been at MaineGeneral Health for ten years. After concluding my master’s in public health, I worked as the grants managerbefore becoming the director of accountable care six years ago. During my tenure, I decided to step into a boots-on-the-ground role with a bit more risk and excitement. That is how I ended up as the telehealth coordinator at MaineGeneral Health, where I was able to make my contribution to alleviating the COVID-19 challenges faced by patients.

How has your role evolved in the past two years, and what kind of challenges do you face as the telehealth coordinator?

Our health system is the third largest in the state of Maine. When I first took this position, we were just exploring Telehealth as an organization. I wanted to help build a telehealth program that would enhance patient-care access across the state. We started with a direct-to-consumer telehealth service, where new or existing patients could register, create an account, and be put in a virtual queue for phone or video-based medical consultations.

We are currently offering a new remote patient monitoring service, which allows patients to easily monitor their blood pressure, weight, symptoms and more from the comfort of their homes. In addition to blood pressure, weight, and oxygen saturation, they’re also prompted with medication reminders and survey questions to monitor their symptoms. In cases where the patient’s vitals are out of range, one of our nurses will follow up with the patient and determine if they need intervention by a provider. This service was launched in an effort to curb our high hospital readmission rates for patients with Congestive Heart Failure.

“We are currently offering a new remote patient monitoring service, which allows patients to easily monitor their blood pressure, weight, symptoms and more from the comfort of their homes”

We also pivoted several outpatient practices to facilitate access to services during COVID-19, when people weren’t visiting our facilities in person. Our priorities shifted after the pandemic as telehealth policy evolved. While many telehealth flexibilities have allowed for new virtual services, during the pandemic, we cautiously monitor to see if coverage willbe scaled back after the public health emergency ends.

How do you envision the telehealth or telemedicine trajectory to evolve, and how will healthcare organizations adapt to this change?

The one thing that I see continuing to rise is remote patient monitoring and the ability of physicians to conduct video visits. At MaineGeneral, we make the whole experience patient-centric, whether they are in-person or virtual patients. We are exploring ways to integrate telehealth systems with Electronic medical records and billing systems to streamline processes, improving communication and quality of care for patients and staff. The focus on remote monitoring will help patients take control of their care and achieve better health outcomes.

What advice would you give your fellow peers and colleagues when it comes to understanding the technology existing today and creating a patient centric care approach?

My advice would be that when you think about your requirements as you select a vendor, consider multiple “what if” scenarios. When choosing a vendor, we always prepare a comprehensive list of requirements, including the services that you would like to implement in the long term. We’ve seen telehealth vendors flourish and fall behind due to the demand of COVID-19. In this regard, I’m hopeful that more vendors will come out with an all-inclusive product line that will integrate with electronic medical records (EMRs), as systems strive to create a cohesive Digital Front Door.

The second piece of my advice is to make sure that the patient experience is at the center of everything you’re considering – from the services, you provide, to the community partnerships you may need to leverage to support digital equity in your geographic area. For instance, we have started establishing relationships with our libraries, and the National Digital Equity Center to launch programs supporting telehealth access. We look forward to continuing to build our program in the coming months as telehealth secures a sustainable presence in the medical space.