How COVID-19 is Shaking Up Healthcare Practices With Telehealth

Welcome to the Executive Innovation Show Podcast, brought to you by One Touch Telehealth. During this podcast hear host, Carrie Chitsey,  with Dr. Brian Bluth (Bluth Medical Associates, LLC). 

Dr. Brian Bluth is trained and board-certified in family medicine. He is the owner and sole-practitioner in private practice since 2009 in rural Oklahoma. He gained interest in rural medicine while in residency in Des Moines Iowa. He especially loved the aspect of full-spectrum medicine the rural setting allows for, including traditional outpatient care, inpatient care, ER coverage, Obstetrics, pediatrics, geriatrics including nursing home director, and surgical procedures including colonoscopy, EGD and laparoscopic surgeries.

Listen to this episode of The Executive Innovation Show Podcast as we discuss: 

As the Coronavirus becomes more widespread across the country, we talk with Dr. Brian Bluth, a family medicine doctor, about the changes he's seen across the healthcare ecosystem this past week and a half. With the emergence of COVID-19, more practices are seeking to utilize telehealth for virtual visits. Dr. Bluth talks about how previously they hadn't used telemedicine in a major fashion but now it has become 70 to 80% of their appointments. Telehealth appointments have become a necessity for patients, nurses, and doctors to keep them safe from the potential spread of the virus. While people around the country are being placed on Stay-At-Home orders, they still need their medications and check-ups. Seniors will need the help, management, and medical care direction that home health provides. As an at-risk population to the coronavirus,  telehealth is needed to provide proper care. As the cancellation of appointments mounts, revenue is being lost. For practices that had telehealth or telemedicine on the roadmap for the future, they are now looking to implement it instantly. Hear Dr. Bluth talk about what providers need to be doing in this time to reduce cancellations and increase revenue? Since Dr. Brian Bluth and staff had a telehealth platform in place, moving to virtual appointments was more seamless than those practices implementing telehealth for the first time. Listen as Dr. Bluth details what your practice needs to do to set up procedures and a system to accommodate potential coronavirus patients. CMS has lifted restrictions on HIPAA compliance to allow things like Zoom, FaceTime and other video tools during this crisis. Should providers and physicians of small and mid-sized practices avoid previous HIPAA compliant standards now? Hear Dr. Bluth's advice on using tools like FaceTime. "It's not just the encryption of the video, but it's the encryption of the information." Carrie and Dr. Bluth talk about why even in this time of crisis, it's important to be HIPAA compliant not only the video but also the information of the patient. How will this change in telehealth affect healthcare long term? As more patients and doctors begin using telehealth and seeing a spike in satisfaction, telehealth will be here to stay. 

How is Dr. Brian Bluth making sure his community gets the care they need? Visit his website to find out. 

Learn more about One Touch Telehealth and how telehealth can help your practice provide better patient care via our “What Is Telehealth?" White Paper. 

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