19 April - 20231. As the virtual services director of Saint Francis Health System, how do you think technology in the Telehealth industry has evolved through the years in regard to improving access to quality healthcare?While there has always been a thirst by healthcare to improve patient care and utilize the latest emerging technologies, hesitation accompanies this as well. There is always a slight fear of the new based on the unknown. Healthcare has the ultimate purpose to provide the best care with optimal outcomes to all patients. Once a method has been proven to work and improve, with change comes uncertainty of continued improvement. In virtual services, there was some hesitation in the industry to embrace this for many years on both the healthcare side and the patient side. Uncertainty By Sandi Wagner, Virtual Services Director, Saint Francis Health SystemVirtual Services working in a Collaborative Effort Across all Service Linesof the quality, satisfaction, and user abilities were among the top concerns. Being in the telehealth management realm for several years now, I have seen this dramatically change. I would say this is one of the most positive things that COVID-19 emergency era produced for virtual care. Both providers and patients had no choice but to utilize in order to receive or provide care. This provided a great chance for all to practice and push through the concerns to realize the potential and benefits of virtual care. 2. What, according to you, are some of the challenges plaguing the telehealth landscape? From your perspective, what are some of the best technologies or methodologies that telehealth providers should adopt to mitigate those pain points?I see three large challenges at this time to the telehealth landscape. The first one includes adoption and growth potential. With the uncertainty of what will continue to be reimbursable or allowed from regulatory perspectives, healthcare organizations have a challenge to find ways of sustainability in any telehealth services they provide. This is however improving with the legislation that continues to be passed. The best way for telehealth providers and healthcare organizations to mitigate this is to remain abreast of the current rules and regulations and to participate in local and national organizations which lead in these endeavors.The second challenge I see is the ability to know which technology is the best for the scenario desired. At this time the market is saturated with many selections for each type of product an organization or provider would desire to utilize. Many are new and emerging and others proven with steady improvements over time. For any organization that has not been through this process before, or only experienced a handful of technology exposures, this is a real challenge. A great avenue to assist any organization or provider in selection would be to reach out to others who have led successful product implementations in their practice and request lessons learned. Another great way is to obtain a third party consultant who has large experience with multiple scenarios for guidance in any telehealth implementation or product selection process.The last challenge presented here regards the availability or lack of technology specific to internet or data services. The rural population across our nation still faces many challenges for sufficient or even any services at all. The best virtual care services offered by any provider or organization will be ineffective without the patient's ability to utilize. Just as in the first challenge presented, the best way for any organization to mitigate this is to assess the service availability in the areas they serve and apply this CXO INSIGHTSCXO INSIGHTSAs virtual care is becoming a standard expectation for both providers and patients, healthcare organizations will need to make this a true focus in their strategic plans. Many organizations have turned to creating a department to focus on all things virtual
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