When children fall ill or need urgent care after their pediatrician’s office has closed, families often face uncertainty and anxiety. Traditional office hours simply don’t align with the realities of busy family life, leaving many parents scrambling for answers in the middle of the night or on weekends. This gap in care can lead to unnecessary emergency room visits, increased health care costs and added stress for both families and providers.
In this episode of Industry Insights with Cheryl, Cheryl Dalton-Norman, president of Conduit Health Partners, sits down with Dr. Shannon Henning, chief operating officer and chief medical officer of Hello Pediatrics, to discuss the challenges pediatric practices face in a post-COVID world, from vaccine delays to rising mental health concerns, and how Hello Pediatrics is closing those care gaps through innovative telehealth services and nurse triage.
Their approach not only reduces unnecessary ER visits but also helps alleviate provider burnout, making after-hours care more accessible, compassionate and effective.
Closing Gaps in Pediatric Care Video
Full transcript:
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: Hi, everybody. I’m Cheryl Dalton, Norman, president of Conduit health partners. And I’m here hosting Shannon Henning. Coo of Hello, pediatrics on this episode of industry insights with Cheryl and Shannon. I am so happy to have you here today. Children are near and dear to me, and I have to say, too, and I want to make sure people are aware that Hello Pediatrics and conduit work together. So we are really proud to support Hello, pediatrics in the background of their work. So, Shannon, could you tell me a little bit about you and a little bit about Hello, pediatrics.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Sure. Thank you. Cheryl. Super. Nice to meet you. Heard lots about you. Me? I live in New York. I’m a pediatric doctor that has worked in ers urgent cares and telehealth for my entire career. I am the mom of an 8 year old, so obviously pediatrics between training and personal life are near and dear to my heart. Hello, pediatrics! Was founded and led, starting in 2022 by physicians, and it was to create a closure in gaps of care. Overnight practices for pediatric patients are open when parents are at work and children are at school and closed when everybody’s home and illness often happens, and it creates a situation where patients are often seen in emergency rooms or urgent cares unnecessarily driving up that utilization and potentially having improper treatment, whether that is because the doctor is treating them as a small adult which children are not, or with the antibiotic, prophylactic mindset which we never do in children. So the idea behind Hello, pediatrics is to be a partner with pediatric practices. When the pediatric practice closes at 5, 6, 7 o’clock at night. We are just a seamless partner that takes over at that point. We answer all calls. We manage patients and triage. If they need to go to er urgent care appropriately. We offer telemedicine visits for anybody that would like to see or speak with the doctor in the evening hours, or over the weekend. We offer asynchronous and synchronous chat for the simple questions of our Tylenol and Acetaminophen the same thing, and we provide feedback to the pediatric practice the next morning. So every practice member gets a copy of anything that occurs with us, a triage call, a telemedicine, visit, a chat, allowing them to have a true picture of what happened with their patients overnight. We partner with the pediatric practice so that we don’t disintermediate them where conduit came in is providing nurse triage for us overnight. We did a lot of research and data driven information to determine that telemedicine isn’t always necessary after midnight, or really, truly, financially, a good decision. And so we decided to have nurse triage, lead our clinical efforts overnight, and conduit has partnered with us and done a beautiful job in handling our patients from midnight to 8 am. Allowing we’re disallowing that fracture of care overnight. That’s really where we are at this point. We’re in multiple states and growing our footprint every year.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: I love that, and as a grandmother, I see for myself, when caring for my grandchildren and for my children, as they are caring for their children this this panic, almost that. It’s 5 30. Now, what do I do? You know I just picked them up from daycare. I’ve just, you know, gotten home, and I see this, and now I have to wait until the next morning to really get help, or you know, or I’m like, oh, but I’m going to call the pediatrician on call, and I, you know, and this this anxiety almost about doing that.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Yes. Yes. we’re really looking to help that burnout that you’re seeing with pediatricians who for years have done nothing but provide care. 24, 7 getting phone calls in the middle of the night during their own personal events. We’re also really steadfast and and stick true to the fact that board certified pediatricians leading that care gives not only the patient and the parent comfort, but it gives the pediatric practice comfort that their children are being cared for appropriately and we’ve worked with those pediatric partners for them to be able to work with us. What is it that you want to see happen with your patients overnight. Do you want to be notified of er visits, or will you wait for the er to call you? Do you have specific things? You’re okay with us, going ahead and treating, giving prescriptions for albuterol, etc. So we work with the partners to be flexible, to ensure that care overnight is what they would want to give to their patients with the understanding that we’re also closing gaps in care, ensuring that patients are following up for acute care who are following up for chronic care, getting their well child visits catching up on vaccines. They may or may not have missed over the covid pandemic and just truly becoming partners with them, as we have with conduit overnight.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That that is, that is just so huge because you can really run the gamut between. Okay, this just needed a Band-aid versus this patient, or this child could have decompensated over the overnight, and really, really be icu worthy by the next morning. So Having Hello pediatrics with your board, certified physicians intervening, really paying attention and hearing and understanding the nuances of what the parents are saying. That’s huge. I mean, I would want that for the practices of where my grandchildren are. So I think that’s amazing. you know, after Covid and I think I mentioned to you my daughter, as a kindergarten teacher. We have just seen a real change. I think she’s seen it from an educational and preparation standpoint. I’m wondering what has has really shown up in the physician practices and in your practice with children in this post. Covid era.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: I would say, there’s 3 major things we’re seeing. There’s a lack of vaccines. Many kids didn’t go in for their well child visits appropriately so to avoid getting Covid. But now they’re playing catch up, and along with that catch up! You are now coupled with a distrust of the medical community the covid vaccine and the push for it created quite a distrust. And it’s hard pediatricians are fighting that science versus trust with their patients battle every day and then your 3rd somewhat not related to the 1st 2, but definitely related to the pandemic, is we’re seeing a lot of mental health with our children decompensating over time, that those children, either who were never out in public because of Covid, or those children who were so used to being social, then shut down and now allowed to go back out, but missed those formative years of developing poor relationships. And so those 3 branches of care are very hard hit right now. Hello! Pediatrics and pediatric practices work together to ensure that patients are caught up with their vaccines, but also so parents are heard and understood that their concerns are there and we’re hearing them, but also looking to protect their kids. And then the behavioral health side we obviously identify. If any children, we see, are having any mental health concerns to ensure that the pediatric practices are aware of what we’re seeing in case they haven’t actually seen those children in a few months, and can provide services for them through the practice.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That’s great. That’s great. So how does the technology work? Are these typically just audio encounters? Are they video encounters? What would an encounter with a parent and child look like.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: We do only video encounters. We believe that it’s better healthcare to provide video encounters for telemedicine. The workflow is very simple. We try and keep it so that patients are only calling their home practice. Once they call their home practice. If they’re closed, it’s rerouted to us, and our phones are answered as, Hello, pediatrics, your pediatrics practices, partner, so they know that they’re getting a partner of their pediatric practice, that they are trusted, but that the parents only have one number to call once they call us. Their parents are really given the option of being scheduled over the phone with a live agent, or doing so by themselves on a computer or mobile device. But the visits are all video and audio, so we can hear and hear and see them. We will not do telephone encounters mainly because we feel that the description of a parent who is in an emotionally difficult time and struggling to see their child not feel well, be injured, be sick, may not be the best description or the most appropriate one for us to make the most appropriate decision. Medically, we prefer to see them on video. To ensure difficulty. Breathing is difficulty, breathing versus respiratory distress, etc. We do have the ability, for, as I said, the asynchronous and synchronous chat in case a parent just has a quick question. But our 1st line of treatment is our call agents, our patient care coordinators who have triage systems set up immediately to transfer patients to an er urgent care. If it’s cases we know should not wait for care. The goal is not to delay care at all and to ensure that that baby, under 28 days with a fever, does go to the emergency room, etc.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That’s great, that’s great. Well, I you know a as
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Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: as I think about the various practices. Do you see a trend in different kinds of practices that are engaging with Hello, pediatrics? Or do they tend to be more like small? You know, community practices, more academic practices? Is there? Is there a typical practice that engages with you all.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Short answer is no long answer is, Hello. Pediatrics has partners from private practices that have less than a thousand patients in them all the way up to large hospital system ambulatory practices. We are partnered with 2 major hospital systems down in the Dmv. And we are partnered with ipas all over our marketplace cins, and then your mom and pop practices who need us just as much. Those are the practices that have been, as I said, seeing patients and talking to patients 24 HA day, 7 days a week for 1520, 25 years. And so our practices definitely run the gamut. We love to work with each of them, they each utilize us in similar and different ways. But, partner with us, to ensure this, the outcome is the same good care for their children and a return of work, life, balance, and a decrease of unnecessary er urgent care. Utilization kind of our win-win-win focus. There.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That’s great. How do you measure success? Are there particular metrics that you all look at? How? How do you measure that.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: For practices. Yes, we have a utilization rate that we monitor and imp implementation rate if you will our penetration rate as far as our success on caring for patients. We have multiple ways. We have patient, driven surveys that we send out after our visits to get feedback on our technology, our provider, the overall process, the care. And then we still 3 and a half years later, make phone calls every day the next day to call every single patient. Hello, pediatric seed to get verbal feedback from parents again, asking those metrics 0 to 10 on those couple of questions, but also just to hear them out. Was the process okay for you? Is there anything that we could be improving? We watch our Google reviews because parents often will write Google reviews. And then there’s absolutely a way for them to get a hold of us via an email that they can send feedback to amongst those 4. We kind of aggregate that data together to ensure that we are making the right strides in any operational changes, technology changes, and then we will report back to the practices every month. Their penetration rate, the utilization of their patients, including gender age, their Payer insurance company, to ensure they’re seeing trends within their practice of which patients are utilizing us, and which ones are not. That that’s really outstanding. I love that you call back the next day and really thinking about Hello, pediatrics. You are an extension of the practice that has engaged with you. So when you’re doing that, you’re also representing that practice as a caring.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: you know, provider who is concerned that you know. Hey? We did this with you. But also we’re gonna double check and make sure that you feel good about it the next day. I love that I that’s huge. That’s huge.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Thank you.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: As you look at er utilization. And I think you mentioned a little bit earlier that you know. Sometimes people get children get treated like tiny adults. And I think, particularly if you’re not going to a children’s Hospital. Yes. the risk is really great. There, what do you see as the biggest concerns. What are the kinds of things that practicers are looking for to drive down ed utilization? I mean, we obviously know in value-based care. There’s a lot of unnecessary expense involved in that the getting that adult kind of care. But do you see organizations really paying attention to that now? And what’s their driver.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Yes, I see large institutions, small institutions looking at that. Their drivers are twofold better care for their patients and better financial outcomes for everyone. If we’re driving up er and urgent care, utilization unnecessarily. Insurance rates are going to go up for our patients and reimbursement rates are going to go down for our pediatricians, which just makes them have to work more hours, see more patients, speed through patients quicker, give them less time in care with their patients. I think one of the largest barriers to be honest is just education to patients that services like this are available. I love to tell the story of when I was in the emergency room. I had a mom bring her daughter in via ambulance because she thought she had a temperature, but didn’t have a thermometer. All of those pieces put together created not only an er visit, but an ambulance ride to the yard because she didn’t have transportation. Hello pediatrics Fixes all of that. You don’t have to leave your home. We can teach you how to evaluate your child. We can certainly let you know. Is it an emergency. Can you wait to see your pediatrician tomorrow and making sure patients are aware that Hello! Pediatrics is available with their pediatrician is huge. We have a director of marketing that works directly with the practices to send out text messages, emails, collateral. Put it up in the office, physical things. They can take magnets, pens, everything, social media posts, anything to get patients to be aware that services like this are available. They do work, they partner with your pediatrician, and they ensure that you don’t have to go to the er spend that money both you, the payer, the health system, or get sick with other things. That child didn’t have a fever now she’s sitting in an emergency room with Flu. Rsv. Covid. You name it. Well, she’s gonna have a fever in a few days, and she didn’t need to. And so all of those components are really important for both the practice and us as their partner.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: Yeah. what kind of feedback do you get from the physicians in the practices and from the you know, the nurses and the support staff in the practices.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: We welcome all feedback, constructive or pat on the back. We get great feedback. So in starting in 2022 we haven’t had a single practice leave us. We just continue to grow. I’m hopeful that the fact that they haven’t left us is an indication that they’re very happy with us. I do meet with our practices on a regular cadence to ensure that there’s complete communication. And they know that the proverbial email door is open to send me feedback, and we get wonderful feedback. We also have a great partnership with our practices. If a patient calls and has a concern about a visit they had with us, or a call that they made through to us. They know they can reach out to us and our customer success department, and we will look into those phone calls, those recordings, that triage ticket, the telemedicine visit to ensure that it was either an issue or just a misunderstanding, and that the parent didn’t quite get all the information written down, whether that’s because they had a crying baby on their shoulder or onus on us, that maybe it wasn’t explained in a way that they needed it to be we use a translation service to ensure that that language barrier doesn’t occur with a lot of our patients. And I, that’s very much appreciated. We have a couple of practices with a few patients that use Asl, we’ve got that video capability. And that has been a wonderful tool for them. So really great feedback from them. And we do send out surveys also to the practices on a regular cadence. Are there things that you want to change about your protocols that you use with us? Are there different communication modes you’d like us to be using? Some practices are pediatric partners like to be called, if we need to get a hold of them, but we also put in place secure hipaa, compliant texting ability to let them know. Hey, we sent this patient to the er or hey? This patient’s prescription didn’t make it through from your visit at 2 in the afternoon. We don’t have access to resend it, can you? And so a lot of practices have really appreciated that, because they don’t have a piece of paper and a pen to write things down when we call them.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That is, that is really outstanding. So why would a pediatric practice not engage pediatrics? I mean, I’m baffled that they that anyone wouldn’t. But you know I I don’t understand what the barrier would be.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: So that question is asked a lot by our internal team, but having been on the other side, I can respectfully understand there is an innate fear of taking attribution of patients. Pediatric practices, losing their patients from their practice has been a fear, since urgent care developed and popped up everywhere. Once we get into an office. And speaking with those that are decision makers, and, generally speaking, to the clinical and operational staff of those practices, they come to understand and learn. We don’t take attribution. We return patients back to their pediatric home. We encourage the closure of gaps, gaps in closure and gaps was right in the 1st place, and we ensure that we’re communicating with them. So if a patient does need to follow up the next morning, it’s really apparent in the notes. They’re getting back. And if it’s something real, severe, we will email or call whoever their point of contact is there. The fear is innate, though right in this world of getting as many patients in and out for reimbursement, because reimbursements are just so low for private practices. I understand that concern. What we try to explain to the practices is we’re there for them after hours, but we’re also there for them to optimize their workflow in their offices. We’ve had some practices who have had patients have to go out for deaths in the family maternity covid. and so they’re down a provider. Their schedules are full. They don’t really know how to balance sick versus well, and we’re there to help them. We can take care of your goopy conjunctivitis eyes over a computer easily, which opens up a slot for you to care for the patient who has an asthma exacerbation or a well child visit where you need to do the blood, the urine, etc, trying to optimize not only their time but their reimbursement, their ability to charge and code and we’ll work with them they can call us. We’re happy to take calls early if that would help them, just to ensure their workflows are optimized that patients are cared for, and that we’re their trusted partner. I would say. Once practices hear that. And they meet our team and they start to see the quality of care that’s coming back. They’re comfortable. It’s just a matter of getting past that barrier of losing their patients which we would never do. We don’t take attribution at all.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That is that that’s outstanding. And and I have grandchildren in Chicago, Dallas, and Knoxville, Tennessee, and I’m like, when can hello pediatrics engage with these pediatricians, you know.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: We’re working on it.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: Yeah, this is, this is great care, because I love that you’re closing the gaps in care whether that be because of covid and delays and getting things, but gaps in care that happen just tiny gaps in the middle of the night versus long term gaps in care. I think that’s important, and then helping providers. As you mentioned these are some folks who haven’t gotten to rest in years, or had a full night’s sleep sometimes in a long time, and then really looking at that value-based care, how can we give the best care that delivers the best outcomes and without creating a financial burden for families and creating a burden for the practices and the health systems. I just see you all filling this huge gap that needs to be filled.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Thank you.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: Shannon, what Have I not asked you that I should have asked you.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Oh, that’s a great question, Cheryl. I think sometimes one of the other fears that pediatric practices have is that the cost will be too burdensome for them so to understand. Hello, pediatrics is completely contracted with insurance companies. All of our telemedicine visits are billed out to insurance companies, and we get reimbursed that way, so the pediatric practice doesn’t get charged for those calls, and the pediatric patient is only charged a Pcp. Copay. The cost is really low for the practice and the patient. There’s no implementation or onboarding fee for pediatric practices. You want to join with us. You join with us. We discuss a few legal parameters and a few operational parameters, and you’re good to go, my friends at Conduit. Make it happen very quickly and the cost for our triage. If a practice has a triage company and they answer their calls, and they determine if they’re non clinical and then clinical, and just send patients to us that cost is whatever that triage company charges them. We also triage. So if a practice wants to just replace their current solution and create one wraparound solution with us our triage costs are very low and very competitive compared to the markets those practices are in. We offer incentives quite often join with us before the end of 2025, and you’ll get 3 months free of triage. And so we really try to work with the practices to not financially sink them, but also provide for them that care and for patients. It’s not an urgent care, Copay. It’s not an er copay, so it’s so much less expensive. The trust in pediatric partners that are board certified from home with low cost is great for parents, especially that parent who has 3 children, 2 are asleep. One is sick. Do you want to wait them all to have to go somewhere? I just think, once parents use us and pediatric practices. See how happy the parents are and the care that they’re getting. It’s just such a great success, and I hope that most practices that are hearing about us are reaching out to their cohorts around the nation. That’s how we get a lot of our current practices. Is those morning coffee chats. Hey? What are you guys doing? For after hours we use Hello, pediatrics! Who are they? And word of mouth gets us in there? So would love to be able to spread that word as much as possible, and grow into new markets as much as possible. So any partnerships that come our way. We look to expand and help their services in other ways, too, that we’ve got partners in various different places. So hoping to make that pro.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: That is, that is amazing. It is wonderful work that’s necessary work. And I just think about young parents, old parents, grandparents who, you know need help when the practice is closed, and and what you all are doing is just it’s it’s great from so many different angles. So, Shannon, I’m gonna be spreading the word.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Thank you.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: And I’m really grateful that you took time to talk with me today. I think this will be very interesting for a lot of people, not only pediatric practices, but families who might want to drive or ask about. You know why? How can this service be made available to me, because I think it’s important, and it’s I think it’s necessary. So thank you.
Shannon Henning, D.O.: Thank you so much, Cheryl, that’s a great point. We’re hoping that families will hear from their friends. I used the service, and those parents will then go back to their practice and say, Hey, do you know about the service? Can we use it? Are you partnered with them? It’s a great grassroots growth method, and we’d love for that to happen. I appreciate your time. Our partnership with conduit has been lovely. Truly it gives us peace of mind at Hill pediatrics, and our partner practices to know that there’s board certified nurses caring for our patients, and I appreciate your time being able to have this discussion.
Cheryl Dalton-Norman, Conduit Health Partners: Oh, thank you! Take care!
Shannon Henning, D.O.: You, too. Thanks, Cheryl.
