5 Tips to Successfully Incorporate Telehealth into Your Practice
Tips provided by Vishal Mehta, M.D., AANA Communications/Technology Committee Member
In light of the impact from COVID-19, some would say that now is a perfect time for Orthopaedic Surgeons to incorporate telehealth into their practices. Vishal Mehta, M.D., member of the AANA Communications/Technology Committee and author of the article, “Telemedicine: A Primer for Arthroscopists” (featured in the AANA February eNewsletter), has been utilizing telehealth services for quite some time and encourages utilizing the extra downtime that comes with elective surgeries being put on hold to incorporate telehealth services into practices.
Using telehealth for the first time, or still unsure of the best way to utilize it? Dr. Mehta encourages using these five quick and simple tips to help get you started:
1: Test your technology.
It is important to do a dry run as with all technologies there may be glitches at first. This can be anything from the audio or voice not working to the bandwidth not being large enough or not having a quiet enough space to work from. Get your IT Department involved early so they know what service you are using and can help with any issues or purchases that are required. For example, there can be long wait times for laptops and cameras due to their high demand and disruptions in the supply chain.
2: Understand the workflow.
Take some time to sit down with your team and understand the workflow. How are patients going to be notified of their appointments? Will you contact them by text message or email to invite them to their telehealth visit? How will you let your staff know what the follow up is going to be for that patient? Will you have some clinics that are just telehealth visits, or will they be a mix of live and telehealth?
3: Contact your insurance carrier.
Make sure you contact your malpractice insurance carrier to make them aware that you are performing telehealth visits particularly if you are doing this across state lines.
4: Check with your billing department.
Make sure that you and your billing department are on the same page regarding how telehealth visits are going to be billed and what the requirements are for your documentation. Make sure to document how the visit is taking place (video vs. telephone) and that it is taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5: Get the word out.
Let people know that you are offering telehealth visits. Put it on your web page and communicate it with your previous patients.