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White Paper Addresses Telehealth(Wireless News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A newly released white paper entitled A Model for Telephonic Medical Consults: Guidelines for Decision-makers, articulates the optimal standards of care for telehealth programs, which currently serve more than 1.2M Americans. According to the paper, as the marketplace demonstrates its continued confidence in telephone medical consults delivered by physicians to improve access to quality care in both urban and rural communities throughout the nation, the emergence of industry standards will help to guide decision-makers in public and private sectors. Co-authors Tommy Thompson, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Vice Admiral Donald Arthur, JD, PhD, MD, retired Surgeon General of the US Navy; and Richard Boxer, M.D., healthcare policy analyst, set forth guidelines for this model to ensure quality and consistency of patient care, including: - Routine medical care Telephone medical consults conducted by experienced primary care physicians appropriately address routine, acute, non-emergent, non-recurrent minor medical conditions. - Patient age limits This model is well-suited to meet the needs of adults who can express themselves over the telephone and reliably relay information to the physician. Therefore, rules on age are an essential ingredient for ensuring quality of care: physician telehealth programs should not enroll children under the age of ten, or attempt to address the medical problems of seniors requiring treatment for chronic conditions. - Physician licenses All consultations should be delivered by physicians licensed in the state where the patient resides. Physicians should not be required to live in the same state as the patient, but they must be licensed in states where they practice. - Prescriptions One of the key value points of telehealth consultations is the ability for physicians to prescribe medications. However, controls should be in place to establish limits: short-term prescriptions or refills of no more than one month; no DEA controlled substances or lifestyle drugs. - Electronic Health Records Today, physicians utilize telehealth not only for patients in their own practices, but also those individuals for whom they take responsibility in cross-coverage arrangements with medical colleagues. The modernized progressive model which focuses on patient-centric care utilizes a fully portable, continuity of care (CCR) electronic health record (EHR) which is updated before, during and after each telephone consult. Telehealth is a proven, mainstream model which promotes more efficient interactions between patients and providers, offers convenient, cost-effective options for healthcare consumers and more attractive pricing for health benefits sponsors, said Thompson. There is growing recognition of the delivery of healthcare via telehealth as a safe, practical and necessary practice, with widespread acknowledgment of its usefulness to impact routine care for non-emergency medical problems. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) ((Distributed on behalf of 10Meters via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((10Meters - http://www.10meters.com)) Copyright ? 2008 Wireless News |