Hey, We’re OpenLoop!

For those of you unfamiliar with OpenLoop, we wanted to take this chance to formally introduce (or reintroduce) ourselves. If you’re curious about what we do, who we partner with and how we’re scaling, this blog post is for you!

As you may expect from a company in the telehealth space, we’ve grown a TON since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For us, that meant pivoting our business strategy only a few mere months into operation. You’ll have to read on to see how...

Our Story

Jon Lensing, the CEO and Co-Founder of OpenLoop, grew up in small-town, rural Iowa. As a kid, he thought his dad was the best doctor in the world. Why else would patients be driving from all over (some spending an entire day commuting) for their appointments? As he got older, he realized that while his dad was a great doctor, he was also one of the only specialists covering a large portion of the state.

Inspired by his father's dedication to medicine, Jon attended the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine to follow in his footsteps as a physician. During his time in graduate school, he realized there was another way to make an even larger impact on the global healthcare industry. Combining his passion for healthcare delivery with his drive to bridge the care gap everywhere, the concept of OpenLoop was born.

Founded in January of 2020, OpenLoop got its start pairing regional healthcare facilities with locum tenens clinicians to fill open shifts. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit a couple of short months later, Jon and his co-founder, Christian Williams, identified a new area they could make a lasting impact and provide immediate assistance to facilities near and far - telehealth delivery.

Our Mission and Vision

OpenLoop’s vision goes hand in hand with the shift we made as an organization when the pandemic hit. That vision is to power healing anywhere.

Our mission to reach that vision? To bridge the care gap and improve community health outcomes through the accelerated delivery of medical services in all 50 states.

OpenLoop Today

Now that we’ve covered where we came from, let’s talk about where we are today. We proudly serve two primary groups - healthcare professionals and telehealth companies.

Healthcare Professionals

When the pandemic began, telehealth usage saw an immediate surge. Hospitals, virtual care companies and even corporations offering telehealth services to employees all needed to ramp up fast which of course, required clinicians to staff those visits.

This is where we come in. We identified this need and began to build up our clinician network rapidly to serve companies struggling to find certified clinicians to see their patients.

Today, our network has hit a whopping 6,500+ certified, multi-state licensed clinicians comprised of physicians, therapists, nurse practitioners and specialists across the entire US ready to fill virtual care shifts (most commonly as locum tenens work).

You may be wondering how or why clinicians nationwide are joining the OpenLoop network. Here are just a few of the ways we raise the bar on provider support:

• Flexible Work / Life Balance: Every clinician in the OpenLoop network gets to set their own schedule and choose which days and times work best. That means reserving time upfront to work your regular job, spend quality time with loved ones or tap into hobbies and passions. Whatever you enjoy!

• Industry Exposure: Our clinicians gain valuable experience while supporting the innovative telehealth companies we partner with across the country. Often unlike traditional healthcare jobs, you get to see a wide variety of cases spread across many different geographies. Not only are you getting exposure to new areas of treatment, you’re also helping more patients in need of care.

• Top Pay: With today’s telehealth boom, we are seeing an increase in pay for providers delivering virtual care. In addition to that bump in wages, telehealth also offers the perk of being able to pick up shifts whenever you’d like. Whether you’re paying off student loans, saving up or even winding down to retire, remote care is an excellent way to achieve those goals from anywhere.

We are constantly expanding our network, adding new telehealth shifts in all 50 states and searching for passionate clinicians to join our team. Interested in being an OpenLoop clinician? Apply to join our network!

Telehealth Companies

While we built up our vast clinician network, we began partnering with telehealth companies in search of providers. The depth of our network allows us to match organizations with the right clinicians aligned to their corporate values, culture and unique patient needs for seamless continuity of care.

On top of solving clinician shortage challenges for our clients, the OpenLoop platform provides all necessary legal, regulatory and compliance infrastructure required for companies to offer medical services via telemedicine in all 50 states. Our team and our technology allow us to streamline licensing, credentialing, hiring, onboarding, scheduling, payroll and EHR management.

Our goal for the telehealth companies we work with? To remove the roadblocks that come with launching and scaling telehealth services so they can focus on serving more patients in need of care. We’ll take care of the rest!

Why do telehealth companies partner with us?

• Confidently Fill Shifts: Every clinician that is sent over to a client has been fully-vetted to ensure they have no malpractice, previous licensing issues or privileging revocations at hospitals. We also test out their telehealth comfort level and guarantee they align with the specialties and requirements you’ve laid out.

• Save Time & Money: By bringing you clinicians all ready to go, we save you the HR resources on the front end required to recruit and hire. We can also set up the legal, regulatory and compliance infrastructure at a lower cost than you could on your own. That means fewer dollars, time and headaches to get you operating successfully.

• Continuity of Care: We build a dedicated care team for each client account. Our clinicians will block scheduled time with our clients on a weekly or biweekly basis, allowing patients to see the same clinician and maintain that relationship for better health outcomes.

Pretty awesome, right? If you’re an organization looking for help launching and scaling your virtual care services, we’d love to help. Get in touch!

Our Growth

As mentioned earlier, we’ve scaled significantly since we were founded in January of 2020. In the past year alone, our team, clinician network, client base and service offerings have all grown rapidly.

Check out some of our mid-year numbers from July of 2021 that we’re especially proud of:

• The OpenLoop team of experts increased by a whopping 625%, jumping from 4 employees to 25 since January 2021.

• The clients we partner with generated 100 new healthcare jobs, 28 in our home state of Iowa.

• Our clinicians served nearly 8,500 patients in Q1 & Q2 of 2021.

• We were awarded several honors, including the Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition, Forbes Next 1000 and the Prometheus Awards.

Read more in our recent blog post highlighting some of our other accomplishments this year.

As we close out 2021 strong, stay tuned for more announcements in the coming months! If you’re a clinician interested in exploring telehealth opportunities or a company offering virtual care services, let’s connect!