Speaker 1: Ever hear of telehealth? It's a way of receiving healthcare remotely through telecommunication technology. Telehealth saw a huge boost in popularity in March of 2020. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services even issued a waiver in March of 2020 to allow Medicare to reimburse for more than 80 additional services. Since the demand for telehealth rose so quickly, some procedures and tools were hastily thrown together. Healthcare providers who were new to providing virtual services didn't have a lot of time to figure out how telehealth fits into the bigger picture of their practice. Today, we'll be going over some of the telehealth best practices for healthcare professionals. I'm Cissy, here with JotForm. Let's get started. First, you should start with an implementation team. You will gain more experience delivering telehealth services each day, but it's a good idea to look at what you are doing right now to see what ways you can improve. If you're working at a larger organization, then take some time to assemble an internal team of staff and physicians. They can work to gather feedback. With their insight, they can provide information on what has been working and what needs to change. For instance, an IT staff member may note that it's challenging to support remote access for the electronic health record, or EHR, software. They can suggest considering an upgrade, which would improve EHR software access. Be sure to set some goals for the telehealth program. At first, telehealth was just a quick way of making sure patients received care when they couldn't come into the office. Now, it's time to set some clear goals as a more permanent program begins to take shape. Your overarching goal could be to expand access to patient care. This is especially necessary to people in underserved communities. This goal could also be useful in caring for geriatric patients and patients with chronic conditions who may have trouble traveling to the office for routine appointments. Next, make sure you're using the appropriate technology. There are a lot of technology tools available for telehealth, and since video conferencing was most widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth also includes remote patient monitoring, as well as technology to transmit radiology images. Depending on what you are trying to do, you will have to evaluate the different tools available to you and decide which would work best. And make sure that they all comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, to protect your patients' privacy. Put a backup plan in place. Even though technology today is pretty solid, there's still a chance that it won't work. If your internet connection goes out, or if your cloud storage provider isn't secure, you could lose valuable patient information. You need to plan for this. Let's say you lose power in your location. This means that you won't be able to conduct telemedicine sessions from your computer because your router will be offline. You should know what kind of backup you have, like an emergency power supply, to restore power to your facility. And check to see if you can connect a mobile device. Next, be sure to educate your patients and staff. Even if you have the strongest strategies in place, sometimes the weakest link in the chain can be people. You can never educate people too much, especially when it comes to patient data. You should teach your staff about telehealth best practices for patient data collection and storage. They should know about HIPAA-compliant practices for when they have to share that information with other providers. Your patients will also need to learn how to use telehealth technology from their end, particularly if you send them home with remote monitoring systems. For instance, they will need to know how to adjust their blood pressure cuffs or use their blood sugar monitor, as well as understand how to upload that data to your EHR. And lastly, always obtain patient consent. This practice is critical. A lot of patients are new to this and just don't know what to expect. Be sure to check your state and payer requirements to determine what type of consent you will need to get from your patients. It's best to obtain written consent before a telehealth visit so that you have undeniable proof that you provided your patient with their rights regarding their treatment. Actually, obtaining patient consent is simple, and you can do it with an online form that they can submit before their visit. The best practices that we talked about today were create an implementation team, set goals for the telehealth program, use appropriate technology, have a backup plan, educate patients and staff, and obtain patient consent. There are other best practices out there for telehealth, and as virtual care needs expand, you should stay on top of them to ensure that you are providing the best care. Thank you so much for watching today. I'm Cissy, here with JotForm. See you next time.