- Make calls in advance of the telehealth visit
- Use support staff with a customer service background and appropriate IT training
- Facilitate test calls, especially for the first call with well-trained resources
- Create a stand-alone toolkit that has everything needed by a clinic to deploy telehealth on their own. It is important to have a support team that can help them, but for mass deployment, a telehealth/IT support team cannot do all the work for each department/division/clinic. The toolkit must facilitate independent deployment
- Having a telephone for an audio-only connection as a last option is important, especially for mental health visits. Try to do the video first. Don’t allow default to the easiest audio-only visit
- Try to do personal technical assistance to address the patient’s concerns. Before COVID, work with local people to have local support. Possibly offer community location such as a local library as a point of access for network connectivity
- In-home installation and patient competency validation are optimal
- For RPM, focus on long-term behavior change with high patient engagement. Encourage independent recognition by the patient of what they should do to bring behavioral change that is not dependent upon close scrutiny of a monitor
Featured Success Stories and Toolkits
