Cleveland Clinic Partners with CVS Health on MinuteClinic Telemedicine Services
In a collaboration with CVS Health and American Well, Cleveland Clinic providers will now be available for on-demand visits with CVS MinuteClinic customers in Ohio through a new telemedicine platform.
Through this partnership, customers at CVS’ MinuteClinics in Ohio can access clinicians at Cleveland Clinic via online and mobile visits.
“Our long-term view of telehealth is that it’s not only a new, welcome service that we can offer our existing patients, but it’s a way for Cleveland Clinic to extend our reach and serve more people who need help. We believe that it is important to remove barriers to great care like time, travel and distance, and we’re making that possible through this partnership in Ohio,” Peter Rasmussen, M.D., medical director of distance health, Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement.
Telehealth technology provider American Well has an ongoing collaboration with CVS Health and a partnership with Cleveland Clinic and is providing the telehealth services as part of the new collaboration. Cleveland Clinic has built a variety of telehealth programs around American Well’s telehealth platform including its Express Care Online consumer offering.
CVS MinuteClinic will offer American Well’s technology and services to provide telehealth to customers in Ohio, as well as West Virginia. The retail pharmacy company has been expanding its existing direct-to-consumer telehealth approach, and up until now, its telehealth services connected customers with other MinuteClinic providers or enabled MinuteClinic providers to consult with telehealth physicians.
“Telehealth further expands on our high-quality and convenient service to our customers. In fact, from our own research, we’ve found that 95 percent of patients were highly satisfied with the care they received, the ease with which telehealth technology was integrated into the visit, and the timeliness and convenience of their care. We are looking forward to explore new and innovative ways to improve access to patient care with American Well and Cleveland Clinic,” Andrew Sussman, M.D., executive vice president and associate chief medical officer, CVS Health and president, MinuteClinic, said.
Ido Schoenberg, M.D., chairman and CEO, American Well, said in a statement that the three-way partnership is significant in that, for the first time, Cleveland Clinic doctors will be available to MinuteClinic customers in Ohio via telehealth, “creating a highly impactful combination of services that greatly enhance the patient experience.” “This is the future of telemedicine – or simply, medicine,” Schoenberg said.