Knowledge Knugget: Pediatric Telehealth vs. Telemedicine for Children

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Welcome to this week’s healthcare Knowledge Knugget! As a part of “The Executive Innovation Show” podcast, we’re bringing you the hot topics, including answering questions that we receive each week, game-changing ideas, best telehealth practices, and tips. During today’s topic, Carrie Chitsey talks about pediatric telehealth solutions.

Pediatric Telehealth vs. Telemedicine for Children

There are notable differences between telemedicine and telehealth for children - and they're not the same. In the telehealth industry, pediatrics has been a significant focus on parents and the convenience that pediatrics telehealth solutions provide for them and their children. Whether it's 10 p.m., or during the day loading up the kids, getting them into the pediatrics physician's office, for routine, low acuity visits can be hectic and stressful. Being able to still see their primary health care physician is critical. 

The good news is that a lot of this can be addressed and is being addressed today with telehealth. Typically, if a parent has a child who gets sick, they can opt to visit the pediatrician's office, if they can get a same-day appointment. Likewise, parents can take their child to an Urgent Care, emergency department, minute clinic, or something of that nature. 

On the same note, it's important to differentiate "pediatric telehealth" from "telemedicine for children," which is currently used in practice as well. Typically, telemedicine indicates that the provider, or the physician, is communicating over the telephone with the parents, asking questions to try to diagnose a child's medical issue. 

So if a pediatric practice is looking to take their business to the next level and increase their billable revenue, consider using One Touch Telehealth services since this field of medicine has one of the highest after-hour and weekend-calls rates. 

If an appointment doesn't require a physical exam or actual labs for infants and children, a pediatric practice can move these appointment types to telehealth to free up waiting room space to keep patients and their guardians safer. 

From a pediatrics perspective, of course, holding a telehealth appointment with a child will be more than having one with an adult. Accordingly, a pediatrician may initially talk to the parents, but then ultimately, he or she will speak to the child on the video visit. Now, because pediatricians using telehealth programs won't necessarily be able to look into the ears or down the throat and nose, they're going to have to ask more questions than usual about how the child feels. 

Consequently, if a provider is looking to implement a pediatric telehealth solution, they'll want to keep some of these things in mind for the practice's workflow regarding the appointment types that should move to telehealth. It's essential to look at how a pediatrics practice arranges after-hour and weekend appointments to see what CPT codes are eligible concerning increasing billable revenue.

Filled with insightful information, “The Driving Forces of Telehealth Adoption During COVID” infographic is now ready for download. Listen to the healthcare podcasts where we talk about all the use cases for telehealth. Subscribe to the podcast and rate us! Have a Knowledge Knugget idea? Reach out and submit today.