As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare agencies, governments, and industry groups recommend the adoption of telemedicine as a remedy for a remote treatment plan. Telehealth is an important medical field that can help practitioners combat COVID-19 by deploying solutions and chronic medicines within patients’ home settings. Due to the increasing demands and regulatory requirements in telehealth, Fresno Medical Center should modify its policy and risk measures to facilitate a smooth and unified transition.
Rationale
Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center reported an overcapacity of the ICU facilities due to a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic. Becker (2020) indicates that the limited number of ICU in the hospital and across the region continues to worry healthcare providers. Fresno developed new partnerships by changing the entire clinic to virtual appointments to curb these needs. Irrespective of the rapid adoption of telehealth, there are concerns associated with quality standards. For instance, California requires providers to obtain written or verbal consent before using telehealth services (FSMB, 2021). While intending to use out-of-state professionals, the state requires experts to adhere to similar certification and licensing requirements issued in Government Code section 179.5 (FSMB, 2021). Fresno is yet to document robust guidelines for effective telehealth delivery. Most of these laws demand increasing coverage of treatment, reducing readmission, and increasing safety standards. Fresno will comply with these requirements by embracing telehealth infrastructure that respectively ensure quick healthcare delivery, reduce exposure of patients to COVID-19, and abide by data security protocols.
Support
Travel restrictions imposed to curb COVID-19 affect patients and the healthcare system disproportionately, with the latter currently operating at full capacity. Under strict infection control, staff such as psychiatrists object intensely from entering COVID-19 patient’s cycles. Elderly and individuals exposed to COVID-19 should obtain daily care without exposure to the infection. The existing measures such as shelter in place and social distancing only serve as part of the interventions (Bohmer et al., 2020). Thus, telemedicine is a timely approach that complies with the recently enacted “Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020 (CPRSAA)” (Klein, 2020). Congress passed this legislation with an $8.3 billion emergency aid package for broadening access to telemedicine for Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 (H.R.6074 – Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020). Telehealth will reduce exposure of patients, risky groups, and decrease hospital expenditure.
Implementation
Effective adoption of telehealth services should begin with training healthcare employees to utilize technologies. At the minimum, by using interactive modules, education services should foster understanding of the scope of telemedicine, communication skills, and the competence to address equipment malfunctions (The Washington State Nurses Association, 2018). Instead of using existing local networks, having an exclusive network for telemedicine will address bandwidth, image transmission, and compatibility issues. Moreover, integrating a disclosure protocol that describes the organization’s compliance with privacy and confidentiality policies is necessary. Healthcare should design an informed consent form for store-and-forward consultations (The Washington State Nurses Association, 2018). Such a document should inform patients about possible benefits and risks, including technical and operational threats that could halt communication with remote regions.
Challenges
Data security is a major challenge with the implementation of telemedicine, which threatens not only the hospital but also the patient. The increasing data collection process also comes with commensurate growth and complexity of analytic techniques (Walker, 2021). Data security requires a solid governance program that addresses multiple issues, which is a challenge for every organization. Additionally, most hospitals can resort to a basic internet connection that could compromise the quality of the diagnosis process.
Evaluation
To determine the efficiency of telehealth services, the hospital should examine key indicators, including delays in accessing referrals and consultation, adherence to clinical protocols, the accuracy of diagnosis, and compliance with provider performance standards. Average waiting times cost per case, and patient satisfaction levels are some of the additional evaluation metrics.
Opportunities
There is also a need to consider and align with the environmental and physical requirements of telehealth services. Rooms for clients or patients should be adequately spacious, averagely, six feet to accommodate the camera operator (The Washington State Nurses Association, 2018). The room should be served with infection control supplies, for example, camera lens disinfectants, antibacterial wipes to enhance safety and redundant systems for an uninterrupted network supply. Allowing networks to connect only through the current firewalls will enhance security.
References
Becker, R. (2020). California’s intensive care nightmare: Which hospitals are full? Cal Matters. Web.
Bohmer, R., Pisano, G., Sadum, R., and Tsai, T. (2020). How hospitals can manage supply shortages as demand surges. Harvard Business Review. Web.
FSMB. (2021). U.S. states and territories modifying requirements for telehealth in response to covid-19. Federation of State Medical Boards. Web.
H.R.6074 – Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 116-123 U.S.C. § Public Law No: 116-123.
Klein, J. (2020). Telemedicine and COVID-19: managing the risk. Coverys. Web.
The Washington State Nurses Association. (2018). Telemedicine: Risk management issues, strategies, and resources. Washington State Nurses Association. Web.
Walker, K. (2021). Cloud security alliance new telehealth risk management guidance to help ensure privacy and security of patient information. BusinessWire. Web.