Learning From a Regional Approach: Integration to Scale, Spread, and Sustain Virtual Urgent Care

Abstract

While new offerings of virtual urgent care services from peer hospitals faltered after initial provincial pilot funding lapsed, our 3 regional academic health sciences centers decided to partner to enhance patient access, achieve efficiencies, and support long-term sustainability. Utilizing the Development Model for Integrated Care framework, we progressed through the 4 phases to ensure joint success and high-quality care: (1) initiative and design phase—individual parallel projects but with strong collaborations and broad stakeholder engagement; (2) experimental and execution phase—continuous quality improvement approach for governance, policies, and processes; (3) expansion and monitoring phase—weekly leadership touchpoints on key performance indicators; and (4) consolidation and transformation phase—sustainability through ongoing funding.