Dr. David McSwain, chief medical information officer of the Medical University of South Carolina believes that many remain skeptical or opposed to the growth of telehealth.
Children’s Health aimed to look at telemedicine as a strategy to keep patients healthy and for overall population health. Dr. Julie Hall-Barrow, senior vice president of Network Development and Innovation at Children's Health in Dallas, Texas said that if kids are quickly diagnosed, the long-term outcome has a much better chance.
In a school-based telemedicine program, the school nurse could deliver low acuity care through connection to a provider, but that primary care physician had be the PCP of record for the patient. Hall-Barrow said that their team worked hard with the government and now any provider can bill a school-based program and Medicare will pay for it.
In pediatric emergency medicine, a telehealth ER program allows 60 percent of patients to get care from their local provider, which reduces transportation costs and allows more parents and children to stay together at home. Now, children’s hospital uses telehealth software for remote patient monitoring programs, such as digital sensors that measure medication compliance.