Case Study: Baystate Health reduces follow-up wait times and frees in-person capacity with Amwell

How Baystate Health Developed and Implemented a Virtual Follow-Up Care Program

Baystate Health, an integrated health system serving more than 800,000 people in western New England, partnered with Amwell to launch a telehealth follow-up care service. The system faced limited availability and long follow-up appointment wait times—averaging over two weeks—and needed a way to free in-person slots for new patients while delivering timely care for existing patients.

Amwell’s telehealth follow-up program moved select follow-up visits (stable chronic conditions, low-acuity issues, and mental health) to virtual visits, staffed by 25 providers (20 advanced practitioners and five physicians) who also maintain in-person practices; providers act as telehealth champions and patients are onboarded at checkout with scheduling and app guidance. Early results show overwhelmingly positive patient and provider reception, improved provider efficiency and work-life balance via telemedicine shifts, and a clear implementation baseline (initial wait times > two weeks, population served ~800,000); Baystate plans to further integrate Amwell with its EMR and scheduling systems to drive more measurable reductions in wait times.

Baystate Health

Anna Paskausky

Primary Care Provider Champion