Hybrid care: how to shape the future of healthcare today
The Dutch healthcare system is facing a major challenge: how do you keep care accessible and affordable when demand is growing faster than the available capacity? One increasingly common answer is hybrid care. But what does that actually mean? And how do you implement it within your healthcare organization? In this two-part blog, we dive into these questions and many more.
First stop: why hybrid care is about more than just digitization, and what it looks like in practice.
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What is hybrid care? And why is it more than just a buzzword?
Hybrid care is best described as the intentional design of care processes that combine physical and digital touchpoints, fully aligned with the care needs, the patient’s context, and the capabilities of the healthcare organization.
Sounds like a mouthful? Just keep these three essential elements of the above definition in mind:
Intentional design: You don’t just bolt video calls or digital tools onto existing processes. You start from the actual needs of patients and healthcare professionals.
The care process: It’s about the entire patient journey, not a collection of standalone tools.
Aligned with both patient and organization: There is no one-size-fits-all solution—hybrid care requires a tailored approach.
Hybrid care is, of course, only part of the solution. The challenge goes far beyond capacity alone, meaning it can’t be solved with a quick digital fix. It will require a fundamental organizational transformation. In concrete terms, that means rethinking how processes are structured, how patients experience care, and how professionals are supported in their day-to-day work.
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Which healthcare challenges can hybrid care help address?
While hybrid care is no silver bullet, it can offer meaningful answers to several structural challenges in the healthcare system.
Staff shortages
The Netherlands is facing a severe shortage of healthcare professionals. Without intervention, the shortfall could reach as many as 300,000 care workers by 2035, according to projections by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS). At the same time, demand for care continues to grow faster than available capacity, making traditional care models increasingly unsustainable.
Outpatient clinics and hospital wards are under constant pressure. And not every care need should be addressed in person and within hospital walls. If we truly put the principle of “digital where possible, hospital when necessary” into practice, we can take a significant step forward.
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Personal care simplified
Hybrid care enables patients to take more control over their own care. It revolves around three key principles: self-directed, at home, and digital. This makes hybrid care, then not just another word for “more digitization.” It is, first and foremost, a way to keep care accessible and affordable. Put differently: digital tools support the broader transformation of healthcare, they don’t replace it.
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Examples of hybrid care in practice
Many healthcare organisations and professionals are already making full use of hybrid care to assist their patients. Three examples from practice:
Maastricht UMC+ introduces MijnIBDCoach
Maastricht UMC+ applies hybrid care based on a “digital-first” principle. Patients engage with healthcare professionals when it truly adds value, for example, triggered by insights from digital coaches (or e-coaches). MijnIBDCoach, developed for patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease, is a concrete example of this approach. This digital care tool enables remote patient monitoring and allows treatment to be adjusted when needed. The results speak for themselves: with MijnIBDCoach, hospital admissions have been halved, and the number of outpatient visits has decreased significantly.
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Arts en Zorg launches an AI symptom checker
Arts en Zorg introduced an AI-powered symptom checker to provide patients with immediate guidance on the urgency of their complaints and the next steps that need to be taken. Patients enter their symptoms and instantly receive advice on whether self-care is sufficient, an e-consult is recommended, or a physical visit is necessary. The result is more efficient triage. Healthcare professionals can focus their time and attention on patients who truly need immediate care, while others receive faster, more accessible support.
CWZ & ZZG Group opt for a remote monitoring app
During COVID-19, access to care became a challenge when outpatient clinics were forced to close. CWZ and ZZG Group therefore developed a remote monitoring system via a mobile app to address the late detection of COPD exacerbations. Patients often deteriorated between check-ups: their condition looked stable in the hospital, but worsened unnoticed at home. The solution was an app that allows patients to monitor their health from home. Shared care protocols determine when home care (ZZG Group) or hospital care (CWZ) is required. This approach ensures care at the right time (when symptoms arise) and in the right place (at home whenever possible), enabling earlier detection of flare-ups. What started as an emergency solution during the pandemic has since evolved into a contemporary hybrid care model.
Taking hybrid care to the next level
A patient doesn’t always need in-person care to feel that their treatment is personal and effective. By smartly combining digital and physical touchpoints, you not only make care more accessible, but also give patients more control and free up space for those who truly need in-person attention.
At iO, we see every day the difference between organizations that launch isolated digital initiatives and those that take a coherent, organization-wide approach to hybrid care. In this second part of our blog series, we dive deeper into how to implement hybrid care in your own healthcare organization—and why it often stalls in practice.