Telehealth

Annapolis, Md.-based ClearHealth Quality Institute, an independent healthcare accrediting firm, rolled out a telemedicine accreditation program and is now accepting applicants.

Telemedicine is growing at a rapid pace fueled by faster Internet connections, the ubiquity of smartphones and personal devices, and new software platforms that connect patients with providers more easily and efficiently.

Though researchers claim nearly 70 percent of all patient visits do not require face-to-face interactions, nearly 41 percent of hospitals and health systems do not plan to offer telehealth services in 2018, according to a recent MGMA report.

Patients with Type 2 diabetes who participated in a telephone-based remote care program had comparable improvements in blood glucose control to those who received traditional in-person care, according to a study presented March 17 at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting…

As behavioral health emergency department visits continue to spike, providers across the U.S. are scrambling to find ways to offer this service to patients in a more cost-effective, timely manner to increase throughput while simultaneously lowering expenses. 

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare launched a virtual hospital services program late February, comprised of 35 telehealth programs and more than 500 caregivers, to address rural Utah's care needs.

Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster, N.H., is joining forces with Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Center for Connected Care to add telemedicine services in neurology and psychiatry.

Sisseton, S.D.-based Coteau des Prairies Health Care System implemented a telehealth program to improve patient outcomes in its emergency department, according to a March 13 post on athenaInsight.

Lorie Harper, MD, an assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's division of maternal-fetal medicine, is leading a research effort to improve birth outcomes for rural women with opioid dependencies, the university announced March 14.

A team of researchers led by a committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics assessed pediatric telehealth programs across the U.S. in a recent study published in Pediatrics.