Page 24 - Telemedicine - Essentials of Virtual Care Delivery Part Two

SVMIC Telemedicine: Essentials of Virtual Care Delivery

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

recently released an issue brief that cited studies on telehealth
and patient safety. Among the findings were:

• The evidence-base for telehealth is strong, especially for

the remote management of chronic health conditions.

• Systematic reviews confirm that telehealth improves health

outcomes, utilization, and cost of care for a host of chronic
diseases, including heart failure, diabetes, depression,

obesity, asthma, and mental health conditions.

• For nonurgent complaints in primary care settings,

diagnostic accuracy and the likelihood of diagnostic error
appear to be roughly comparable in tele-diagnosis versus

face-to-face encounters.

• The task force recommends that AHRQ should clarify

how to aggregate and analyze patient safety data to
better identify improvement opportunities and publish

research on telehealth encounter safety. For example,
AHRQ could develop best practices and guidelines on

optimizing patient safety in a telehealth encounter, as well
as guidelines on safely transitioning to an in-person visit or

a higher level of care.

Quality: Telehealth is essentially a setting or modality of
care, rather than a type of care. As such, it should be held to

the same standards and quality measures as in-person care
wherever possible and appropriate. In cases where the unique

characteristics of telehealth dictate a change in each measure,
it should be adapted, rather than reinvented or developed from

Page 24