rural communities in the country two-thirds Areas suffering from shortages of primary care physicians. At the HHS meeting in May, Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, said virtual care is the most meaningful way to address this care gap, statement “There is no future of rural healthcare without telehealth.”
The news appears to be getting attention elsewhere. Carilion Clinic is a Roanoke, Virginia-based health system with a large rural patient population, Announce and TytoCarea New York City-based telemedicine company. The partnership aims to strengthen the health system’s ability to remotely diagnose and treat patients through virtual checkups using TytoCare smart devices, such as telehealth check-up kits and pop-up telehealth clinics.
Carilion provides care to nearly one million Virginians, many of whom live in rural communities. The health system first began exploring the use of telemedicine to treat rural populations in 2016. first grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The funding enables Carilion to deploy behavioral health telehealth services in 12 rural counties in southwestern Virginia, focusing on patients with opioid use disorder.
After launching its behavioral health telehealth program, Carilion looked to other telehealth use cases. Dr. Stephen Morgan, senior vice president and chief medical information officer for the health system, said he read case studies on how other health systems are using TytoCare technology and quickly learned about the company’s ability to help expand more telehealth services to rural patients. interested.
Carilion began exploring a partnership with TytoCare in 2019, looking at how virtual screenings of rural patients could help reduce readmissions to skilled nursing facilities.The partnership was briefly halted during the shock of the pandemic, but health systems are receiving Federal Communications Commission and USDA Expand the use of telemedicine equipment.
According to Dr. Morgan, last week’s partnership formalized a relationship that had been going on for several years.He said Carilion chose TytoCare over its competitors, such as Medical PhD and Tradockfor several key reasons.
The most important thing is the technical quality of TytoCare. When Carilion’s clinicians examined the technology, they found that it could remotely perform high-quality physical exams of a patient’s heart, lungs, nose and throat. TytoCare allows adding various peripheral views and Bluetooth scales on one platform.Another reason is TytoCare’s ability to seamlessly integrate with Carilion’s holistic health technology architecture, including its Anwell telemedicine platforms and epic Electronic medical records.
Additionally, TytoCare has demonstrated its ability to operate in low-bandwidth regions. This is an important criterion for Carilion, as many of its rural patients have much slower internet connections.
In its official partnership announcement, Carilion said it is using TytoCare’s telehealth device to remotely monitor pediatric asthma patients and care for rural chronically ill patients. The health system will also deploy the TytoClinic solution in rural schools, which can turn any location into a telehealth clinic to increase access to primary and specialty care for students and teachers.
Carilion’s primary goal of this collaboration is to enhance access to care for rural patients by providing more care at home. Dr Morgan said the health system will measure the success of this partnership by tracking metrics such as how often rural patients receive telehealth care, a reduction in emergency department visits and lower readmission rates at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
Advances in telehealth are something all healthcare systems serving rural patients should support, even with the permanent coverage status of virtual healthcare, Dr. Morgan said. not yet determined Provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“I think all hospitals are looking at where the federal government is going with telehealth reimbursement, but I still think it’s a value game for most health care systems,” he said. “The longer this technology exists, the lower its cost will be. It will reduce readmissions, shorten hospital stays, and potentially reduce emergency room visits.”
Photo: marekuliasz, Getty Images
