Are you Ready for Technology?
“Are you Ready to Select a Vendor” Checklist:
Review this list to see if you are ready to start looking for vendors.
- “Why Telehealth” Answered by Senior Execs
- Telehealth Governance Established (team & processes)
- Experienced, Multidisciplinary Telehealth Project Team
- Telehealth Service Defined
- Clinical Champion Identified
- Business Case & Clinical Case Documented
- Telemedicine Service Workflow Defined
“Why Telehealth” answered by Senior Execs
You have ideally developed a Telehealth Program Strategy that explains why your organization is interested in employing telehealth and to what end. At a minimum, you want to be very clear about the clinical and strategic reasons for why you are launching a telehealth service for which you want to select a telehealth technology (see Business Case and Clinical Case below).
Telehealth Governance established (team & processes)
Before selecting any vendor, you need to have a clear understanding of how you will launch, run, and govern your telehealth services. A strong governance is needed to ensure success. The governance team's input and involvement in the vendor selection process is crucial.
Experienced, Multidisciplinary Telehealth Project Team
It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a multidisciplinary team to launch a telehealth service properly. You’ll need clinical input, technical input, someone who understands clinical workflows, billing expertise, and expertise on any applicable laws, regulation, and policies.
Telehealth Service Defined
It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a multidisciplinary team to launch a telehealth service properly. You’ll need clinical input, technical input, someone who understands clinical workflows, billing expertise, and expertise on any applicable laws, regulation, and policies.
Clinical Champion Identified
Telehealth is about delivering care, about practicing medicine at a distance. Telehealth is a clinical tool, not a technical tool. Thus it is crucial that a clinical champion is identified to spearhead the development and launch of a telemedicine services.
Business Case & Clinical Case Documented
Each telehealth service must have a financial analysis and demonstrate alignment with the organization’s overall strategy. In addition, the clinical side must be well understood and supported by the clinical champion.
Telemedicine Service Workflow Defined
The definition of the workflow by which the Telemedicine Service will be delivered is critical. Not only will this greatly inform your search for a vendor (i.e., if your desired workflow is possible with the vendor's technology) but mapping out the process will also identify all key stakeholders and users that should have a say into the vendor selection, from the user interface and usability perspective. Once you've selected a vendor, you can always go back and modify your workflow, but you want to start with your ideal workflow. Why? Because how your organization delivers care goes to the heart of your organization's culture. You need a vendor whose solution enables you to deliver care in the way you want to, not how the vendor wants you to.
