Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth in the U.S. has grown tremendously, as healthcare systems have sought ways to continue providing care to patients amid state and local lockdowns. While many systems or practices offered limited telehealth prior to the pandemic, the lack of options for in-person care have brought virtual visits to the forefront of medicine.
Making Telehealth Locum Tenens Work
Even in our business of locum tenens we've seen positive outcomes related to telehealth. One of our physicians, Patrick Marsh, MD, recently moved away from Oklahoma, where he had a regular locums assignment. The facility didn't want to lose him, so they had him start working telehealth assignments from his new home in Minnesota.
Telehealth also allows Marsh to fill in for shifts on the other side of the country. "If somebody is sick either in Florida or Oklahoma, they could call me the night before and say, 'Can you cover something tomorrow?' and that is perfectly reasonable because it is telehealth, whereas if I had to fly down there, there is no way I could cover a shift on a moment's notice."
Even when he started feeling COVID-19-like symptoms during one of his telehealth assignments, he was able to continue seeing patients remotely. Not one to miss days of work, prior to COVID-19 he would have likely still gotten on a plane and traveled to the assignment.
"In retrospect, especially with COVID now, it does seem foolish that I would have gotten on an airplane, rented a car, driven to a third city, rented a hotel room, gone to multiple restaurants during the week while I was there, in addition to seeing patients," said Marsh. "I could have been sharing any number of viruses."
Working telehealth allowed him to continue providing patient care while keeping himself and his patients safe.
Finding Success With Telehealth Before and After COVID-19
Many healthcare facilities have found success with telehealth, both before and during COVID-19. Parkview Health, a community-based health system headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been using telehealth on a limited basis for years, but COVID-19 turned a limited service into one of the backbones of their health system. Prior to the pandemic, Parkview averaged 68 video visits per week, with no visits done via telephone. Now they are averaging more than 5,700 video visits and 5,400 telephone visits per week -- more than 80,000 in total since mid-March.
We recently spoke with Rhonda Lindner, the neurosciences practice manager at Parkview, about how they used telehealth before the pandemic and what it's doing for them now. Prior to the pandemic, Parkview used an app that gave their patients access to Teladoc; it received around 600 monthly users. With the onset of COVID-19, they switched to a new online system called MyChart that let patients schedule video visits with hundreds of their providers. The program was so popular it jumped from 600 to 25,000 visits in a month.
"Since COVID-19 hit, 80 to 90 percent of our outpatient volume has been done virtually, either by video or telephone encounters," said Lindner." Just like patients, some providers are not really technology savvy and we had to provide lots of extra support and guidance to make sure they were feeling comfortable."
A Future With More Virtual Visits
Looking to the future, Lindner doesn't expect these virtual visits to ever go away. It has proven especially successful for her neurosciences department as they have many patients with conditions that make it difficult for them to get out. The virtual visits allow those patients to still be seen consistently while reducing possible risk factors.
If you're looking to expand or improve the telehealth offerings in your facility, Lindner recommends having resources for your providers, staff, and patients. Whether that's your IT department, customer service, or just an email of someone who can track down the answer to their problem. If the technology isn't working, neither is your program. It's also important to let your patient population know what you offer and how it all works. While telehealth isn't the answer to all of the challenges created by COVID-19, it is a strong tool that allows patients to continue receiving needed care.
Bill Heller is the president of Weatherby Healthcare, a subsidiary of the medical staffing agency CHG Healthcare, and has nearly 20 years of both physician and nurse staffing experience.
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August 31, 2020 at 01:02AM
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Telehealth and Continuity of Care - MedPage Today
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