On Demand: The Future of the CV Care Team: Building Virtual Care Pods to Expand Access, Capacity and Team-Based Care-Webinar Slides

Webinar Slides

Pdf Summary

The presentation describes how MedStar Health Cardiology and Auxira built and scaled a “virtual care pod” model to address two major challenges in cardiology: growing patient demand with limited cardiologist supply, and severe EHR inbox burnout. Demand is rising as more Americans age into Medicare, while cardiologist availability is not keeping pace. At the same time, patient portal message volume and complexity have surged, creating unpaid after-hours work.<br /><br />The solution evolved in three phases: a pilot inside MedStar, internal scale-up, and then a spinout into Auxira to make the model easier to deploy more broadly. The core model is an APP-led virtual care pod that supports three cardiologists, with role-delineated work across a remote APP, MA, and later a fractional RN. The pod handles routine follow-ups, triages inbox messages, converts clinically appropriate messages into billable telehealth visits, and helps cardiologists focus on higher-acuity visits and new patients.<br /><br />Key design elements included careful APP hiring criteria, cardiologist involvement in interviews, onsite shadowing, and a schedule that balanced visits, inbox work, and flexible add-on appointments. The model is fully EMR-based and does not require complex IT integration.<br /><br />Reported outcomes included reduced after-hours EHR time, improved patient access, better patient satisfaction, higher margin, and increased wRVUs per day. Scaling revealed the need for dedicated management, recruiting, and onboarding infrastructure, which led to the creation of Auxira as a national company. Additional case studies showed major improvements in message response times, more new patients, and increased RVU production. Overall, the pod model is presented as an operating model that expands capacity, improves provider wellbeing, and creates financial value.

Keywords

Cardiology

Virtual care pod

Auxira

MedStar Health

EHR inbox burnout

Telehealth

APP-led care

Patient access

RVU production

Remote care model