- Broadband Internet Expansion Key to Telehealth in Rural Areas
The announcement comes on the heels of news that the US has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. According to data from Johns Hopkins University at the time of publication, there are over 164,700 confirmed cases in the US.
As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, providers are relying on telehealth services to safely treat patients.
Virtual appointments suspend interactions that could boost the spread of COVID-19 and gives patients peace of mind by limiting their exposure. The solution may also help to eliminate no-shows and cancellations while delivering care to patients in need.
Allscripts clients have increased the number of video visits by 9,000 percent during the pandemic, the company reported in its latest announcement.
“We’re committed to partnering with healthcare organizations to help combat the spread of COVID-19 by providing them with telehealth solutions that deliver innovative ways to care for their patients in need. Our consumer engagement strategy has an EMR-agnostic patient record at its core,” Hewitt said.
“That record is connected to the consumer’s care team. That is why we architected a platform approach to our telemedicine solutions. This strategy contrasts favorably to a bunch of ‘cool apps’ that further perpetuate isolated silos of inoperable data.”
The implementation includes a step-by-step client decision workbook, ten remote project hours for training, a specialized COVID-19 form and alert verbiage for patient outreach, the announcement stated. This allowed clients to be up and running in just a few days. The FollowMyHealth solution follows CDC recommendations to reach patients before appointments and uncover alternatives to face-to-face visits.
Grand Lake Health System is one of the health systems leveraging Allscripts’ new telehealth implementation plan.
The system and its affiliated non-profit health centers offer primary, acute, and rehabilitative services to its community. Grand Lake and Allscripts worked to launch a contract on March 17. It was staffed and began project implementation that day, followed by live activation a few days later.
Grand Lake has been using the solution with more than 100 video and on-demand visits within the first few days following the activation.
“Allscripts was very responsive to our needs to quickly roll out telehealth at our organization, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lori Miller, RHIA, chief of information services at Grand Lake Health System. “This was a quick install and has been easily rolled out to our ambulatory providers as well as several of our acute outpatient service areas. This has been a welcomed transition for many of our patients that are diligently practicing social distancing.”
The Los Angeles LGBT Center has also been able to expedite its telehealth implementation by partnering with Allscripts to support a “telehealth first” strategy with its patients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Allscripts has been efficient with expediting our telehealth setup which gives us more ways to keep our patients and our staff safe at home,” said Gabriel Lopez, director of health information systems at Los Angeles LGBT Center.
“With FollowMyHealth we have enabled, tested, and successfully piloted telehealth visits within three days, and we anticipate most of our 48 medical and mental health providers to have the capability to accept video visits by the end of March. Our partnership with Allscripts is helping LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.”
“Because this unprecedented health crisis has deterred patients from seeing their providers, it’s never been more critical for healthcare organizations to utilize available telehealth capabilities. With FollowMyHealth, we have been able to reach our patients while they remain safe in their homes. It’s a tool that has proven vital in our efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19, Brad Holland, president and CEO of Hendrick Health System concluded.
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