Thoughtful Use of Telehealth in the Post-Acute Care Continuum – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 9/25 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Dr. Jay LaBine (@labinejay), Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Kris Smith, President of Home-Based Medical Care at @naviHealthPAC on the topic of “Thoughtful Use of Telehealth in the Post-Acute Care Continuum“.

COVID-19 has put post-acute facilities – like nursing homes where nearly 43% of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred – in the spotlight. Today, many clinicians and caregivers are rethinking where to send a patient or loved one for safe, quality care.

It is no secret that the widespread deployment of telehealth was necessary to support the continuum of care for both providers and patients during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And widespread it was. According to CMS, prior to the pandemic, 14,000 beneficiaries received a Medicare telehealth service in a week. From mid-March through early-July, more than 10.1 million beneficiaries received a telehealth service.

Telehealth offers many advantages – including keeping patients out of environments where they could be susceptible to COVID-19. While it is a great alternative for many, telehealth presents challenges for some populations, particularly seniors, who are the most vulnerable to and require the greatest protection from the virus.

Providers should consider whether or not services should be delivered virtually or in person. Additionally, when providing telehealth services, it is important to build and maintain a trusting relationship with patients and caregivers so they feel comfortable with the provider on the other side of the screen, rather than deferring to 911 when a health issue arises.

So, what is the most appropriate use of telehealth in the post-acute care space? What constitutes a successful telehealth visit? And what does telehealth adoption look like for seniors? These are questions we look forward to discussing during our #HITsm chat this week!

Join us on Friday, Sept. 25, at 12 p.m. ET to share your insights and hear from others.

Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:

T1: What constitutes a successful #telehealth visit? What are your #expectations? #communication #diagnosis #treatment #answers #HITsm

T2: Are you comfortable using telehealth services? Are you comfortable with your parents using telehealth? #rehabilitation #recovery #seniorcare #homecare #telehealth #HITsm

T3: For which services is telehealth a good fit? Which are more appropriate in-person? #postacutecare #telehealth #HITsm

T4: Have you seen telehealth deployed successfully with senior patients? #telehealth #seniorcare #HITsm

T5: What can be done to establish physician-patient relationships while using telehealth? #telehealth #HITsm

Bonus: Is telehealth here to stay? #telehealth #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule

10/2 – The Rise of Consumer Healthcare Applications
Hosted by Brendan Keeler (@healthbjk) from @Redox

10/9 – What Do Patients Expect Now?
Hosted by Tim Dybvig (@timdybvig) from @ExperityHealth

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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