With the coronavirus pandemic, telehealth has become the default venue for a wide variety of clinical visits. We asked three health care leaders:
What do we know about the efficacy of telehealth and its impact on quality and safety?
Dr. Joseph Kvedar
of Partners HealthCare offers another way to ask the question: “How is telehealth different?” He cites use cases that lead to different measures of quality. In the end, if physicians are thoughtful about the indications for using telehealth, quality is likely to be high.
Barbara Rabson
of Massachusetts Health Quality Partners says the public health crisis is an opportunity for innovation. As telehealth transitions from emergency fix to ongoing practice, the most important metrics of success should be patient and provider experience. MHQP is already surveying them to learn how it’s going.
Frank Federico
of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement wants the evaluation of telehealth to be informed by metrics, including morbidity and mortality, diagnostic errors, patient-reported outcomes, among others. He also notes the importance of studying the impact of telehealth on the experience of patients and their families, as well as clinicians and staff members.