The interview touches on the use of telehealth to support provider efforts, from remote clinical assessments to at-home monitoring of at-risk patients. Brandofino addresses the uptick in provider demand fueled by the current outbreak, the logistics of telehealth implementation, and the additional telehealth funding recently approved by Congress.
JAHIMA: Last week Congress approved extra funding for telehealth. Were you happy to see that and will that help providers use a solution like yours?
MB: We’re so glad that they had the foresight. We’re starting to see some movement in coverage of telehealth sessions. They approved coverage of things like Teladoc, which is a patient with a doctor for a 20-minute session, but they hadn’t yet really done coverage for this e-sitting or for the monitoring in the ICU. That’s still underway. But the fact that they recognize telehealth as having a potential large impact in fighting COVID-19, we’re happy with that. And I think it’ll enable some hospitals that haven’t had funding to get telehealth programs underway.
To support customers during the current pandemic, Caregility has created a COVID-19 Virtual Disaster Response Program to help health systems plan, prepare for, and manage patients. This includes offering existing health system customers expanded capacity and use of iObserver and iConsult Mobile solutions during the crisis.
Special Statement – COVID-19 Preparedness and Support
While Caregility isn’t on the front lines, we want to help you and your team in any way we can. Therefore, have created a COVID-19 Virtual Disaster Response Program for coronavirus patients. The program includes:
We have developed a Rapid Response streamlined mobile telemedicine cart that can be deployed at the point of care in emergency departments and containment units for assessments, observation, screening and communication.
We have released our iConsult Mobile telehealth application which has an iOS and Android client that can be quickly leveraged on tablets and mobile devices. This will enable us to help customers if they choose to use off-the-shelf iPad or Android tablets.
We are offering expanded capacity and use of iObserver and iConsult Mobile for our existing health system customers during the pandemic.
We have implemented a special COVID-19 help line to expedite response to customers caring for coronavirus patients.
We have expanded capacity in our core infrastructure to support an increased volume of calls.
We hope these efforts will help you minimize clinician staff exposure to COVID-19 while providing an effective way to care for patients. The impact of telehealth on battling the coronavirus pandemic is substantial. Remote observation and virtual rounds can enable you to monitor Covid patients and assess their treatment progress without entering into the patient room. Our telehealth platform can also enable regular virtual family and friend visits, which can help patients through their isolation.
From a business continuity perspective, we have taken steps to pre-order components and have sufficient inventory to continue manufacturing units. We have taken steps and are prepared for our support team to work remotely with access to all of the tools and applications to support our customers from home. We have ramped up additional warehouse and manufacturing locations to enable deliver of Rapid Response telemedicine carts in a shorter time frame.
To learn more about how Caregility may be able to help your team, please reach out to your sales executive or contact us at caregilitycares@caregility.com.
