Case Study: Beacon Health System achieves competitive advantage and acquires new patients with Amwell

How Beacon Health System Gained Competitive Advantage and Acquired New Patients through Telehealth

Beacon Health System, the nonprofit parent of Elkhart General Hospital and Memorial Hospital of South Bend, needed a single, system-wide telehealth solution to attract new patients and employer groups and extend its clinical talent across facilities. After forming a cross-disciplinary governance group and piloting provider test groups, Beacon selected Amwell (deploying Beacon Connected Care on the Amwell platform, Amwell Telemed Tablet capabilities, and initial staffing support from Amwell’s Online Care Group) to deliver an integrated telehealth program.

Amwell implemented a multi-phased rollout—direct-to-consumer urgent care, employer offerings, site-to-site provider consults, and provider-driven scheduled/on-demand visits—launched in 2017. The Amwell-powered service produced measurable impact: 33% of registrants completed online visits (70% female), average wait time was 6 minutes, providers rated 4.7/5 and the platform 4.5/5; employer customers saw a return on investment in year one, and post-visit data showed 47% of patients avoided urgent/retail care, 35% avoided office visits, 3% avoided ER visits and 15% would otherwise have done nothing—demonstrating improved access, cost savings and competitive advantage.

Beacon Health System

Mary Kuhr Anderson

Innovation Project Consultant