Cargando…

Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm

The telehealth revolution in response to COVID-19 has increased essential health care access during an unprecedented public health crisis. However, virtual patient care can also limit the patient-provider relationship, quality of examination, efficiency of health care delivery, and overall quality o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Reeves, J Jeffery, Ayers, John W, Longhurst, Christopher A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7857524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477104
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/24785
_version_ 1783646457754025984
author Reeves, J Jeffery
Ayers, John W
Longhurst, Christopher A
author_facet Reeves, J Jeffery
Ayers, John W
Longhurst, Christopher A
author_sort Reeves, J Jeffery
collection PubMed
description The telehealth revolution in response to COVID-19 has increased essential health care access during an unprecedented public health crisis. However, virtual patient care can also limit the patient-provider relationship, quality of examination, efficiency of health care delivery, and overall quality of care. As we witness the most rapidly adopted medical trend in modern history, clinicians are beginning to comprehend the many possibilities of telehealth, but its limitations also need to be understood. As outcomes are studied and federal regulations reconsidered, it is important to be precise in the virtual patient encounter approach. Herein, we offer some simple guidelines that could assist health care providers and clinic schedulers in determining the appropriateness of a telehealth visit by considering visit types, patient characteristics, and chief complaint or disease states.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7857524
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher JMIR Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-78575242021-02-05 Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm Reeves, J Jeffery Ayers, John W Longhurst, Christopher A J Med Internet Res Viewpoint The telehealth revolution in response to COVID-19 has increased essential health care access during an unprecedented public health crisis. However, virtual patient care can also limit the patient-provider relationship, quality of examination, efficiency of health care delivery, and overall quality of care. As we witness the most rapidly adopted medical trend in modern history, clinicians are beginning to comprehend the many possibilities of telehealth, but its limitations also need to be understood. As outcomes are studied and federal regulations reconsidered, it is important to be precise in the virtual patient encounter approach. Herein, we offer some simple guidelines that could assist health care providers and clinic schedulers in determining the appropriateness of a telehealth visit by considering visit types, patient characteristics, and chief complaint or disease states. JMIR Publications 2021-02-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7857524/ /pubmed/33477104 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/24785 Text en ©J Jeffery Reeves, John W Ayers, Christopher A Longhurst. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 01.02.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Viewpoint
Reeves, J Jeffery
Ayers, John W
Longhurst, Christopher A
Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title_full Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title_fullStr Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title_full_unstemmed Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title_short Telehealth in the COVID-19 Era: A Balancing Act to Avoid Harm
title_sort telehealth in the covid-19 era: a balancing act to avoid harm
topic Viewpoint
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7857524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477104
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/24785
work_keys_str_mv AT reevesjjeffery telehealthinthecovid19eraabalancingacttoavoidharm
AT ayersjohnw telehealthinthecovid19eraabalancingacttoavoidharm
AT longhurstchristophera telehealthinthecovid19eraabalancingacttoavoidharm