A Practical Guide to Implementing Whole‑Health Care for Telehealth
Discover how telehealth makes whole-health care possible
The whole-health care framework recognizes that treating patients isn't just a matter of reviewing their symptoms; it’s about looking at their complete health picture.
However, traditional healthcare’s episodic delivery methods don't make implementing whole-health care easy.Instead, we have to look beyond the clinic's four walls and toward a more modern mode of care: telehealth.
Below, we’ll explore what whole-health care is, how it can be used in telehealth, and what it can look like in practice.
What is whole-health care?
Whole-health care is a patient-centered approach that looks beyond symptoms to consider the full picture of health, including physical, behavioral, and social factors. Instead of treating conditions in isolation, whole-health care emphasizes care coordination among different providers—such as physicians, mental health professionals, and nutritionists—to create a more complete care plan. When delivered through telehealth, this model can help reduce barriers like travel time and expand access to integrated services.
What does whole-health care look like with telehealth?
To put it simply, whole-health care is a patient-centered care model that focuses on treating one’s overall health and well-being, and telehealth is the method by which this care can be delivered.
By nature, this model doesn’t work by operating in silos. It requires coordination, which includes encouraging a collaborative partnership between patients and their care team, as well as promoting transdisciplinary teams.
Let’s look at examples of what this might look like in practice.
Integrated behavioral health care
Research has revealed that patients with chronic conditions, like coronary heart disease or diabetes, can be more susceptible to developing mental health disorders. By integrating whole-health care and utilizing digital modes of delivery, managing physical and cognitive concerns could look like:
Seamless care coordination
Primary care doctors, specialists, and mental health providers can actually work together. Take someone with heart disease who's also struggling with anxiety; their cardiologist can easily refer them to a therapist, and both providers stay connected throughout the treatment process. They can share notes and coordinate care plans, so patients don't have to repeat their medical history at every appointment or deal with conflicting recommendations from different doctors.
Routine teletherapy sessions
Patients can join therapy sessions from home, which can reduce barriers like transportation or time away from work. For some, this convenience may support ongoing engagement in care.
More connected care
Patients can track mood, sleep, or stress using apps or wearables. With the patient’s consent and in compliance with privacy laws and company policy, select data may be shared securely with the care team to give additional context about how mental health may interact with physical health.
Compliance tip: Organizations should avoid using tracking technologies to share sensitive health data for advertising.
Proactive chronic care management
With an aging population and more complex conditions, proactive, coordinated care is increasingly important. Telehealth can help support:
Continuous monitoring: Eligible patients may use RPM devices (e.g., blood-pressure cuffs, smart scales, glucose monitors) that securely share readings with their care team.
Early intervention: unexpected changes—such as rapid weight gain in a heart-failure patient—may prompt a check-in and treatment adjustment.
Help improve treatment adherence: Chronic conditions often require frequent appointments, which can become a logistical barrier to care for some.By offering regular virtual visits, telehealth can help reduce these barriers (e.g., travel and scheduling), which may help some patients stick with their care plans.
How to implement whole-health care with telehealth
Now that we’ve discussed how virtual whole-health care could work, let’s dive into what implementation might look like. Here are a few steps to consider:
1. Strategic planning
Implementation hinges on an organization being committed from the top down, so buy-in is crucial. This involves:
Training teams to work collaboratively instead of in silos.
Re-evaluating traditional workflows and redefining new protocols for care coordination.
Establishing clear communication channels to ensure all medical, behavioral, and social needs are addressed, ideally in a single, cohesive care plan.
2. Selecting the right telehealth platform
Your telehealth infrastructure will be the backbone of the entire whole-health care model, enabling the flow of continuous information, patient interactions, and more. Leaders will need to decide if their organization will build its own telehealth platform or partner with a telehealth vendor.
Build an in-house platform: This allows for complete customization, but it can take several years and require a significant amount of internal resources.
Work with a telehealth partner: Partnering with a partner, like OpenLoop, still allows for complete customization while also offering increased speed-to-market, lower upfront costs, and proven reliability.
3. Ensure you have the providers to power it
Build or buy, your telehealth platform only performs as well as the clinicians behind it.
Whole-health care looks at the full picture. Meaning, care is around the clock and it often takes a team. Make sure your provider staffing flexes with real-world needs—after-hours coverage, multidisciplinary support, and seamless handoffs.
This might look like:
A diverse clinical bench: Physicians, behavioral health specialists, nutritionists, and social workers collaborating on one comprehensive care plan.
Extended/Flexible hours: Evenings, weekends, and surge capacity for busy seasons so patients don’t have to choose between care and their schedule.
Coordinated care & warm handoffs: Shared notes and clear workflows to move patients smoothly between specialists.
Licensed where your patients are: A network that can cover the states you serve so access isn’t a barrier.
When your clinical team is built to scale, your platform, and patients, reap the benefits.
Pro tip: Unlock the clinical support you need faster with OpenLoop’s nationwide provider network and 24/7 patient support.
Selecting the right telehealth platform
Whole-healthcare, combined with telehealth, makes care more accessible, proactive, and personalized. Yet, you need to have the proper infrastructure to not only deliver on its capabilities but also scale it to reach more people.
OpenLoop provides a white-label telehealth infrastructure that enables companies to offer convenient, connected, and seamless care that patients want. You control your brand, we handle everything else behind the scenes. From provider staffing, to billing and reimbursement, to healthcare AI, OpenLoop is the end-to-end solution built to make scaling easier.
Want to learn more? Contact us today!
*This content is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, please consult a licensed attorney.