The National Quality Forum revealed six critical areas to measure when assessing the quality and impact of telehealth services in a report released Sept. 5.
The report, titled "Creating a Framework to Support Measure Development for Telehealth," describes the findings of a multistakeholder committee, which convened to recommend methods to measure telehealth use.
The committee aimed to identify the highest-priority areas for measurement related to patient access to care, financial impact to patients and providers, patient and clinician experience and effectiveness of clinical and operational systems.
Here are the six areas the committee identified for measurement.
1. Travel
2. Timeliness of care
3. Actionable information
4. Value of telehealth for providing evidence-based practices
5. Patient empowerment
6. Care coordination
"This report and the conceptual framework herein serve as the foundation for future efforts by measure developers, researchers, analysts and others in the healthcare community to advance quality measurement for telehealth," the report reads.
Click here to view the full report.