UNC HealthCare, based in Chapel Hill, N.C., is expanding its telemedicine program through a partnership with Mercy Virtual, the virtual care arm of the Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy system.
The collaboration is a new take on a common theme: telemedicine meets clinically integrated network. The combined effort will allow faster and broader telemedicine adoption than if each health system tried to build its own independent program.
The partnership will allow both organizations to share their clinical expertise, with Mercy's added experience in virtual care. Terms of the deal were not released.
The initial stage of the partnership, the first for Mercy Virtual, involves monitoring patients in UNC Medical Center's 28-bed intensive-care unit. But the eventual plan is to build a broad suite of joint services and programs, according to Mercy.
