This presentation will provide an overview of a large academic health system’s virtual care, or telehealth, programming with a focus on the rapid growth during the Covid19 pandemic. It will review adoption data and key performance indicators, and explore key questions related to virtual care implementation.

The CUHK Medical Centre (CUHKMC) is the only university-owned private teaching hospital in Hong Kong with the social mission of bridging the service gaps between private and public healthcare. The CUHKMC also aims to become an academic medical centre of excellence through its strategic partnership with CUHK Faculty of Medicine and medical innovators around the world. In line with the not-for-profit principle, all surpluses from all healthcare services will be ploughed back to the hospital for hospital development and the CUHK Faculty of Medicine for research and teaching.
The CUHKMC pioneers the construction of a “Smart Hospital” in terms of patient care and hospital operation, which include a highly integrated hospital information system with electronic and paperless medical records, and technology to support patients throughout the patient journey. Smart management realizes human-machine-things connection through the Internet of Things (IoT). Making use of smart technologies, we aim to improve the patient's experience, enhance efficiency of operations and provide quality services.
The CUHKMC also adopts dual pricing strategy. In addition to the conventional fee-for-service model, a package-price service model has also been introduced in the 4-bed standard ward. The package price design is based on the concept of diagnosis-related group (DRG), which incorporates patient’s comorbidity, complexity of procedure, and post-procedural complications. The package price model promotes price transparency and certainty, which helps alleviate the concern about the unpredictability and volatility of prices in the private healthcare system.
The CUHKMC also wishes to contribute to the sustainability of the healthcare system in Hong Kong through active participation in the public-private partnership with the public healthcare system. Based on the service deed as agreed with the government, the CUHKMC pledges to take care of 17,600 new patients in the specialist outpatient clinic, and 6,600 day-procedures using Hospital Authority fee schedule every year. This may serve as a new model of public-private partnership in the future.