The competitive landscape is changing quickly, and virtual care is a significant driver. Healthcare providers must adapt their competitive analyses to this new reality and strategically position their virtual services to new and existing patients.

New competitors are in play among both traditional providers and newcomers intent on disrupting conventional offerings. Just as virtual care facilitates ease of delivery and new services, it also lowers the industry’s barrier to entry. 

While patients are eager to embrace virtual care, some research indicates there is a gap between patients’ attitudes and actual use of telehealth. That gap may require providers to develop awareness and education campaigns about their virtual care services, the benefits, how to use them and how the provider will protect patient privacy. 

Virtual care also reduces the geographical limitations that have traditionally defined healthcare markets. Although patients still face the constraints of insurance, they are empowered to go farther afield in search of clinicians, particularly specialists. This wider scope will influence the way providers compete for patients.

When the pandemic made it necessary to scale virtual care at a breakneck pace, healthcare organizations rose to the challenge. The goal now is to build foundations for virtual care that are streamlined, secure and sustainable.

The pandemic intensified cybersecurity concerns throughout the healthcare industry. Organizations faced multiple challenges: new threats, an expanded attack surface and new vulnerabilities, including remote employees, rapid expansion of virtual care and suspension of certain HIPAA requirements for telehealth. 

For cybercriminals seeking to sell data on the dark web, medical records are among the most lucrative targets. Hackers quickly adapted their attacks to the operating environment of the pandemic. In addition to increased phishing attacks, they seek to exploit vulnerabilities in the devices, networks and software used for telehealth services. 

The risks are especially high when employees are using disparate tools and inconsistent procedures in nascent programs that do not have strong security controls — exactly the type of environment in which many telehealth programs expanded during the pandemic. In addition to deploying the appropriate security solutions, organizations must ensure that every employee is well trained in security best practices, particularly on how to identify and avoid phishing attacks.

Virtual care should be subject to data encryption at rest and in transit. Remote monitoring devices, together with devices used for telehealth, virtual rounding and eICUs, should have regular software updates to ensure that patches are installed appropriately. Networking controls and best practices, such as multifactor authentication, should be in place for all virtual care solutions.

Providers should expect that the suspension of HIPAA enforcement in connection with services deployed during the pandemic will be temporary. In the future, these will be subject to the same HIPAA compliance as the rest of the organization. 

Finally, it is important to remember that patients are also mindful of privacy and security when it comes to their medical records. Hospitals enjoy a relatively high level of trust among consumers, 84 percent of whom trust hospitals “some” or “very much” to keep their digital information safe, Accenture found. However, that percentage drops for other areas of healthcare, such as nonmedical staff at doctor’s and provider’s offices (63 percent). These perceptions matter as consumers begin to seek out providers offering more comprehensive digital services.