Strategies for Evaluating Telehealth

Abstract

* Abbreviations: AHRQ — : Agency for Health Research and Quality COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 HbA1c — : hemoglobin A1c KPI — : key performance indicator NQF — : National Quality Forum STEM — : Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth Evaluation and Measurement The ability for our health care system to adapt with extraordinary speed under crisis has never been more evident than now as we face the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Ambulatory clinics and primary care providers have seen shifts in patient demand for their services, and elective and scheduled care at hospitals has been reduced to mitigate the spread of infection. Almost overnight, the health care system has shifted toward providing care through telehealth platforms to avoid the catastrophic consequences of “doing business as usual,” making telehealth a leading modality of health care delivery.1 The telehealth alternative to in-person health care expanded rapidly as new federal and state legislation passed and payers reimbursed telehealth more broadly. Jefferson Health, one of the nation’s early pioneers in telehealth, reported a 10-fold surge in demand, scheduling up to 600 telehealth visits a day. As with many hospitals across the nation, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia saw telehealth visits increase from 5 to 10 per day to >1500 per day. More than 800 … Address correspondence to John Chuo, MD, MS, IA, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: chuoj{at}chop.edu

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