This pandemic imposed new demands and critical pressures on our healthcare system, staff, systems and facilities. It also revealed weaknesses in delivery of care including access, equity, continuity of care, connectivity/technology disparities and Public Health. It imposed increased business pressures drivin by dropping revenues and increased costs as well as increased pressures on staff and supplies. This plan process found that many of these can and are being addressed with telemedicine and related technologies.
Deploying telemedicine can contribute significantly to preparation for, and response to, the demands of a pandemic. Moreover, telemedicine offers significant everyday benefits including: attracting new patients, providing expanded service to your market area, expanded revenue potential, and creating higher levels of patient satisfaction. However, proper assessment, preparation and having these technologies and workflows in place and in use is critical for them to be available and scalable when a pandemic strikes.
The fact that telemedicine had not been broadly implemented limited provider’s flexibility and ability to serve their patients.
The Covid experience brought focus on inefficiencies in healthcare delivery and outmoded methods of day to day hospital operations. It also identified where technology can improve care, reduce inefficiencies, reduce the demand for facilities and reduce costs. Examples:
- Provide increased care and disease management in the home
- Provide urgent care on-line/virtually
- Provide continuity of care for chronic disease patients
- Eliminate/minimize space needed for waiting rooms while reducing infection risk in these environment and reducing consumer frustrations inherent in waiting rooms and long waiting times
- Reduce demand for office space and commuting
Telemedicine also showed us how to better share resources, convert bed use with telemedicine (teleICU, telestroke) and provide higher acuity services at home opening hospital beds and reducing infection risk.
Telemedicine should be made an essential part of the new normal and should be integrated into every appropriate segment of day-to-day operations. Telemedicine use and escalation of use should also be part of every strategic plan and every disaster recovery plan for hospitals and providers.