Arkansas Hospital Ditches mHealth App in Favor of Telehealth Platform
Baxter Regional Medical Center is discontinuing its urgent care mHealth app at the end of the year, after seeing patients and providers move toward a more comprehensive telehealth platform integrated with the EHR.
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By - An Arkansas hospital is shutting down its urgent care mHealth app in favor of a more comprehensive telehealth platform.
Baxter Regional Medical Center announced shortly before Christmas that it would discontinue its Baxter Regional CARE app at the end of the year. The 268-bed, Mountain Home-based hospital had launched the direct-to-consumer app in early 2019, joining a wave of health systems developing on-demand urgent care services to reduce ER congestion and improve patient engagement.
According to hospital officials, the coronavirus pandemic has pushed telehealth to the forefront, with primary care practices and clinics managing care and scheduling virtual visits on their own and in collaboration with the hospital. At the same time, less people were using the mHealth app.
“I believe our telehealth options outside of the Baxter Regional CARE app are more than enough to continue providing excellent care to every patient every time,” Ron Peterson, the hospital’s president and CEO, said in a press release.
Baxter Regional will handle virtual care through its EHR-based TeleVisits platform, which includes the eClinicalWorks patient portal and Healow mHealth app.
