On Demand Telepsychaitry Experiences Massive Expansion as Bluestream Health and QLER Partner to Offer Patients & Hospitals Essential Behavioral Healthcare in Real Time

NEW YORK, April 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluestream Health, the rapidly growing virtual care company designed to power healthcare providers is expanding its strategic partnership with QLER, a nationally distributed healthcare provider, to provide the comprehensive platform for their national group of board-certified psychiatrists to treat patients in ER/IP/OP settings via dedicated on demand telehealth partnerships with regional health systems.

QLER has experienced 80% year-over-year growth on the Bluestream Health platform -- built to support health systems without local resources and serve patients in desperate need of fast and quality psychiatric medicine.

"QLER connects highly qualified psychiatrists with hospitals and clinics in the time it takes to click a request button on the screen. Even better, hospitals and clinics only pay for the service when needed. By building on our telehealth platform -- hospitals, emergency departments, and community health centers that partner with QLER for telepsych services are only a click or tap away from connecting to a skilled psychiatrist within 30 seconds," said Brian Yarnell, co-founder and president Bluestream Health. "This is critical for any hospital that has a mentally ill patient admitted to a hospital and needs immediate services either through an on staff psychiatrist or a virtual telepsych solution."

QLER initially partnered with Bluestream Health four years ago to focus on emergency departments with acute needs for 24/7, on-demand access to behavioral health care. The company required immediate video connectivity that was HIPAA-compliant and with operational reporting to better utilize resources, queueing, patient follow-up, order writing, and more across multiple locations and classes of care.

"One year ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak hit the U.S., we started to see our health system partners' emergency rooms report a rise in mental health issues such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicide ideation and substance abuse due to shutdowns, curfews, and shelter-at-home orders disrupting daily life. These critical local health systems needed high quality psychiatric consults in their ER's and inpatient units more than ever. Our large, national, employed group of on-demand psychiatrists can be there at the touch of a button with no up front cost or struggle for the health system.  We are proud that we started new health system partnerships in a matter of days thanks to our multiple years in the business and our Bluestream technology partnership. This would have been more difficult if we carried the technology burden ourselves." said Frank E. Johnson, president and CEO of QLER "Other vendors offer video capabilities, that has become a commodity. The comprehensive Bluestream application allows us to partner hand in glove with health systems and provides us the data to measure the impact we are having on patient care. Length of Stay, reduced cost and overall health system outcomes.. Our health system partners stay with QLER for the long term because we are ingrained in their care processes and improve patient care, not just conduct video conferences."

According to a report released last year by the CDC that surveyed adults 18 years and older across the U.S. from June 24–30, over 40% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition, including symptoms of anxiety disorder or depression. The CDC commented on the report that, "community-level intervention and prevention efforts, including health communication strategies, designed to reach these groups could help address various mental health conditions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic."¹

The continued telepsych partnership between Bluestream Health and QLER is exactly what the CDC has called upon organizations to help with and it has allowed hospitals to scale services through Bluestream Health to deliver the right telepsych care efficiently and in an organized way to meet the growing needs of the hospitals and all mental health patients. This is critical because hospitals really don't want to hold a patient if they can't immediately treat or evaluate them; but a hospital can also not release a patient suffering from mental health issues -- so it has been an interesting conundrum for many facilities.

Bluestream Health's patented provisioning engine is the driving force behind QLER's efficient, flexible workflows, enabling QLER to facilitate the connection between the patient in the hospital and the right (accredited) psychiatrist as soon as it is needed. QLER shares Bluestream Health's philosophy that virtual care doesn't start and end with a simple transaction but should engage patients throughout the entire care continuum.

"Maximum efficiency; Zero waste; Patients don't have to travel. That is the future" added Yarnell. "Patients need to get help and support where they are, not where the hospital tells them to drive to. Bluestream and QLER are committed to making that happen together."

About Bluestream Health
Bluestream is a leading provider for telehealth to healthcare providers and health systems. With over 500 health system facilities and 50,000 providers, Bluestream is delivering over four million video minutes and 100,000 on-demand virtual care visits a month with average wait times of 12 seconds. Its virtual care platform provides health systems, clinics and third-party providers with a simple and low-cost way to build, deploy, and manage complex clinical workflows.

About QLER
QLER is America's leading on demand psychiatry provider. Our unique focus is on long term partnerships providing on demand psychiatric consults for regional health systems all over the country. Our large, geographically distributed and employed group of handpicked psychiatrists are uniquely prepared for on demand psychiatry. The supporting organization makes them the most effective, impactful, and efficient psychiatrists in America. This results in the best response times, most trusted hospital partnerships, competitive per click rates, and measurable patient care improvement.

Contact:
Erin Farrell Talbot
Farrell Talbot Consulting for Bluestream Health
917-232-9309
[email protected]

¹https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm

SOURCE Bluestream Health, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.bluestreamhealth.com