Why Adopt Telehealth Now
Telehealth is critical to providing care to patients while reducing the risk of infection and transmission of COVID-19 among agency staff, patients, and family caregivers. Scheduled and on-demand video visits enable providers to:
- Discuss patient progress in clinician-to-patient and clinician-to-clinician in real-time
- Reinforce the care plan with the patient and reiterate the patient’s role in self-care
- Drive compliance by answering questions and addressing obstacles to adherence
- Include family caregivers who may not be able to visit their social-distancing or quarantined loved one
How Virtual Care Will Enhance the Future of Home Health
McKinsey & Company recently identified virtual home health services as one of 5 models for virtual or virtually enabled non-acute care and analyzed the full potential of healthcare volume and spend that could be delivered this way. Their claims-based analysis suggests that up to 35% regular home health attendant services could be virtualized, and 2% of all outpatient volume could be shifted to the home setting, with tech-enabled medication administration.
“I think the genie’s out of the bottle on this one,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in April. “I think it’s fair to say that the advent of telehealth has been just completely accelerated, that it’s taken this crisis to push us to a new frontier, but there’s absolutely no going back.” In mid-June, she penned a CNN op-ed piece and stressed that “telehealth will remain an important tool, but some areas of the country should also begin resuming in-person care for those who need operations, procedures, preventive care, or evaluation for chronic conditions.”
As in-person care delivery starts to resume, patients will still expect to have more virtual care options based on their interest, usage and satisfaction with telehealth amid the pandemic. However, it is important to remember that HIPAA-compliant requirements have only been temporarily waived. Post-acute care organizations need to ensure they have a HIPAA-compliant platform that helps them facilitate virtual visits today and continues to protect patients (and their organizations) in the near future. A safe and secure platform is even more critical if/when a potential second wave of COVID-19 cases occurs in addition to an expected influx of patients as elective procedures cautiously resume.
Why Agencies are Implementing Synzi
Home health agencies are using Synzi’s HIPAA-compliant telehealth apps to safely continue care during the coronavirus pandemic and set themselves up for success as the country moves into the next phase of healthcare delivery. With the Synzi virtual care platform, these post-acute care organizations are able to:
- Keep patients at-home and on track with their treatment
- Protect staff who may have limited PPE
- Continue to care for patients who are denying in-person service
- Provide care to patients in facilities which continue to restrict in-person service
- Support the community if/when a second wave of COVID-19 patients occurs
- Support the expected surge of patients recovering from elective procedures