The Role of Remote Work in Healthcare and Its Impact on Patient Care

Highlights of this episode include:

• What operational intelligence is
• How it changes the way hospitals function day-to-day
• How AI can be applied in hospitals
• Examples where operational improvements directly impacted patient care

Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast.  We’re pleased to welcome Chris McShanag. Chris is the founder and CEO of Virtual Teammate, which has helped more than 2,500 talented virtual professionals find their place in organizations worldwide, supporting over 600 clients along the way. His mission is simple but bold to reshape the virtual assistant industry by creating an experience that feels seamless, supportive, and genuinely valuable for both clients and assistants. At Virtual Teammate, culture comes first. Chris makes sure every assistant blends effortlessly into client teams, delivering immediate impact and dependable support. Many of these professionals are registered nurses and HIPAA certified, a testament to the company’s dedication to excellence in healthcare and beyond. Chris is passionate about building real relationships. His drive to help clients succeed and streamline operations is setting fresh standards in the world of virtual staffing.

In this episode, we’re discussing the role of remote work in healthcare and its impact on patient care.

Welcome, and thank you for joining us, Chris.

Chris McShanag: Thank you, Kelly. It’s a pleasure to spend some time with you today and excited to kind of share some important information about this topic and ever-evolving capabilities it provides for healthcare providers to really buy back their time.

Kelly: Great. Well, let’s go ahead and jump in. So, what shifted in the industry that made remote work not just possible, but necessary?

Chris: Well, what’s really shifted really in the last 10 years, we’ve gone from a workforce that 5% of the time was remote to well over 50%. And of course, we had a bump through COVID, but what we realized very quickly, particularly in the healthcare space, is there’s so many tasks that don’t involve touching a patient that can really be leveraged at a better pace and a better capacity and the right resources. And so, what we focus on at Virtual Teammate is really helping our customers and our clients and the clinic owners focus on the highest and best use of their time, which is patient care, and really delegating those tasks that don’t require their technical expertise or the technical expertise and capability of those in the office. And so, for us, it’s really been a game changer to have healthcare providers catch up with the insurance industry that for the longest period of time has been leveraging remote team members to really support their ongoing operations.

Kelly: Yeah, I know remote work is just so prevalent right now in healthcare and in other industries. Which healthcare roles are truly optimized for remote work, like medical scribes, billers, or admin support, and why?

Chris: Really, I mean, they’re optimized because they’re very much consistent, what I would like to refer to as kind of rinse, repeat the same process, the same task over and over. And that’s where our team accelerates is, as you mentioned, 80 to 90 percent of our folks are RNs healthcare trained. They’re all HIPAA certified, and a lot of them have come from the insurance industry. And so they have that deep experience from insurance verification, eligibility, precerts, billing claims. And so really, it’s about buying the clinics’ time back of the providers, but also getting reimbursed in a timely fashion for the work they do, and I know that’s what your company specializes in as well. And that’s where we really come alongside to support that and be intentional to really optimize the workflows for our clinics. And we leverage technology to really support that. So, it’s not just about a person or virtual assistants, a virtual assistant that’s enabled by technology to really improve and optimize the productivity. And because of that, we can confidently say that our team is about 47% more productive than having somebody in the office and allows for, yeah, exceptional revenue growth.

Kelly: Wow, no, that makes a lot of sense. So, I know some practice owners worried that remote staff might reduce the quality of care. What would you say to those who fear that outsourcing admin work affects the patient experience?

Chris: I would really challenge them to think about the patient experience starts when they come to the office, right? But it starts well before that. It’s when they interact with somebody. So many of my doctors and clients will say, “I love you, doctor, but I can never get in touch with you.” And so, by leveraging our teammates handling phone calls, handling scheduling, that really starts to enhance that patient experience well before they come in to the clinic. And so being able to connect with your doctor, being able to interact with them, that’s where our team takes a lot of that administrative support, phone calls, scheduling, off the doctor’s hands and those in the office so they can enhance the patient experience when they’re in front of them. And they can enhance that experience of feeling like they’re being heard and they’re connected and they have the necessary information, thereby allowing the doctors to spend more time with their patients. And what’s driven a lot of this is reimbursement has really declined, but costs have grown. And so, our team can really allow that opportunity for doctors to be intentionally spending time with their patients, particularly on the medical scribe side, where we’re real-time updating documentation while the doctor is spending time with the patient, instead of spending time in front of a computer.

Kelly: No, definitely. So how does removing administrative burden from doctors and clinicians directly impact patient outcomes and satisfaction?

Chris: So, I mean, I think it buys back their time. So, they spend more time doing what they do best and are educated to do is interact with the patient, get to understand the patient’s needs, where their struggles are, and really be able to respond in an empathetic manner, where they’re not overburdened. And we’re seeing such a burnout in the healthcare industry of doctors, dentists, veterinary folks really burning out because they’re spending the majority of their time, whether during the office hours or after hours, doing unnecessary paperwork that’s not the best for them. And then that has direct impact on the customer satisfaction in regards to their mood and how they feel and how they present themselves to work. And then, of course, the outcomes, they’re not getting that one-on-one interaction with the doctor because the doctor’s too distracted by making sure they update the notes, making sure they do all that information, or they’re following up on billing and things like that. And it also improves the satisfaction outcomes by streamlining the scheduling process and making sure that your patients can get in touch with the doctor’s office and get the care that they need and deserve.

Kelly: No, I love that. It’s so important to keep those doctors focused on what they really should be spending their time on. So, Chris, what measurable improvements have you seen in practices that embraced remote healthcare support, financially, operationally, or clinically?

Chris: So financially, and really clinically, on the financial side, we’ve seen huge bumps. And so a number of our clients have reported 40-50% increase in the number of claims and precerts that can get completed in a day, thereby really accelerating their reimbursement. And so being paid for the services. If you think about it, healthcare is one of the only industry that extends credit with the hope of payment, right? We deliver the services, but we don’t get paid at that exact time for the services. We have to go kind of chase that down. And so, for us, it’s really about enhancing that experience so the doctors can get the money that they’re paid or owed. Follow up with the insurance company, work through denials, and really reduce the AR days, which is such a burden for practices because they’re incurring all this cost with the hope of payment down the line. And so, for me, I’m really passionate about the little bit I can do to give back to doctors so they feel like they’re getting compensated for the work they’re doing, but also not spending all their time on paperwork, but being able to really invest in nurturing the relationships with their patients.

Kelly: No, I love that so much. Chris, looking ahead, 5 to 10 years, do you see remote staffing becoming the norm in private practices? And what happens to clinics that resist this shift?

Chris: Yeah, I definitely do see this continually being embraced because, on the provider side, we’re probably 5 to 10 years behind the insurance companies and other areas. I really see it embraced because, as we move more to technology and more to kind of some of these online visits, particularly we’re seeing a lot of growth in the behavioral health, mental health space with our clients. I think that’s definitely the trend is going to continue. But I think on top of that is not just having remote team members. It’s having remote team members like what we’ve put in place with Virtual Teammate, because the focus of Virtual Teammate isn’t just giving you an assistant. It’s a teammate. And because the definition of a team is a group of individuals that’s working together to a common goal.

And our teams have changed. As I mentioned previously, our teams were all in the office. Now our teams are what I like to refer to as here, near, and far. Here, physically in your office. Near, working remotely, maybe in the same geographical space within the US, for example. And then far, leveraging folks like myself, my team that’s in the Philippines, Latin America, across the globe, forming one team and really coming together and driving engagement. Because that’s where the workforce is going. And that’s where the optimization and efficiency is going because of the continued growth in technology. A lot of my clients will come to me and say, “Hey, but won’t AI replace all of that?” Well, healthcare is such unstructured data that AI is not going to really embrace that completely in the next 5 to 10 years. But instead, I see technology and AI enabling our remote team members to be more efficient and effective, thereby allowing doctors more time to spend with their patients and less time having to deal with unnecessary paperwork because with an executive assistant, you’re not just getting the work done, but it’s also monitored to make sure it’s accuracy. And that’s hugely important, of course, when you’re working in the healthcare space, data accuracy and data privacy.

Kelly: Oh, definitely, that data accuracy and data privacy is certainly key. If a healthcare practice owner is still overwhelmed, burned out, and buried in admin work today, what’s the real cost of not embracing remote support for both their business and their patients?

Chris: I mean, I think the cost really is mental burnout for our physicians. And so, we’re seeing about a 40% burnout of physicians. Rather get out of this business that they’re so passionate and loved and did education and spent so much time in their life into because it’s just overwhelming, right? The reimbursements are coming down. So, I think for those that don’t embrace it are going to kind of get swept over because costs continue to rise. Obviously, minimum wage and other things continue to rise. And really what we come alongside is, we take care of that heavy lifting to give you highly capable folks that can perform the work administratively in the back office. So, it allows to free you up time to do what you do best, take care of patients, but also buy back some of your time so you get to spend time with loved ones and others to really refresh. And if you don’t do that, then I think that those kind of physicians and practices are going to get rolled over because it’s just too much work, and they’ll get sucked up into some of these larger corporations.

And so, for me, I’m just passionate about how do I keep those one to two, three physician doctor offices sustaining? Because I think that’s a legacy they have to leave to future generations. And so, 95% to 97% of my clients are all one to five practitioners. I don’t do a lot of work with the hospitals because I think the uncapped capability and ability within this country is really those small to medium sized healthcare practices that have that opportunity to do personal care. And if they don’t embrace remote team members like the larger hospitals and insurance companies, they’re just going to get burnt out and rolled over.

Kelly: Well, Chris, I love all your passion for this topic. And we really appreciate you sharing your insights with us on the role of remote work and healthcare and its impact on patient care. And if a listener wants to learn more or contact you to discuss this topic further, how best can they do that?

Chris: The best way is via LinkedIn. I love getting messages via LinkedIn. Also, you can go to our website, virtualteammate.com and book a call to kind of schedule to meet with me. I love sitting down with our clients and just kind of strategizing on how we can help them because my main focus in building this organization and really is to have an impact in the healthcare space. As I like to say, kind of I’ve been in the healthcare for about 30 years. And my focus has always been on delivering technology, whether it be meaningful use or large technology systems. But I realized really quickly that I could deliver all the technology, but that’s taking doctors away from their patients. And so, for me, I’m very passionate about Virtual Teammate and what we can do to make a difference to enhance clients leveraging remote team members, which is super important. And that’s creating that opportunity, but also the opportunity to enhance the virtual teammate experience working for fantastic doctors and clients and allowing them the opportunity to earn a living wage and really making that connection and then leveraging technology for frictionless growth and automation so that doctors can do the best they can do and we can really optimize their operations and segments. And so, the best way would be reach out via LinkedIn or reach out via our website, where I’m always happy to take your emails from our folks at cmcshaneick@virtualteammate.com. And I always love talking to doctors and learning more about how we can really help them be more successful because they go to work each and every day taking care of us. And I want to do our best to take care of them because I recently became a grandparent. I’m now a grandparent of three. And I want to have a legacy where I can at least contribute to having healthy, successful doctors and clinics when I pass on.

Kelly: Well, love that. Well, thank you so much, Chris, for providing that. And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…

[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.holdings/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of Besler Holdings.

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