Telehealth Is Improving Health Care in Rural Areas (hbr.org)

Intermountain Healthcare is addressing the pressing needs of people who live in rural areas through telehealth, which uses secure video and audio technology to connect care providers in smaller health care facilities with specialists in large hospitals. The results we’ve experienced hold promise for rural communities throughout America.

Patients are frequently transferred to distant acute care centers to receive specialized care. Local caregivers don’t get the opportunity to learn from specialists about caring for complicated patients. Similarly, social workers, crisis workers, and care managers for chronic diseases are sometimes not available in smaller communities, requiring patients to travel hours for basic mental health and primary care.

Telehealth transforms those situations to everyone’s benefit. The patient receives expert treatment locally without the added risk and cost of a transfer to a bigger hospital. Local hospitals retain vital revenue and enhance their services. Community members get better care that’s based on evidence-based best practices. Health care is better overall.

Intermountain operates 24 hospitals and 160 clinics in Utah and Idaho — a footprint that’s about the size of Italy. But our Connect Care Pro operation provides 40 telehealth services in seven western states to many facilities that are not part of Intermountain. We have a 24/7 telehealth center in Salt Lake City with a full-time staff, plus about 500 care providers on call who are in a wide range of medical specialties.

The digital hospital model we’re creating is focused on identifying areas we feel we can impact from a safety, quality, access, cost, and experience standpoint. After those targets are identified and vetted, we align clinical teams, technology, and good data to deliver on our objectives. This allows us to spread best practices rapidly and without respect to urban proximity, so our patients receive consistent high-quality outcomes regardless of geography.

To read more of Marc Harrison's article, please click here.