Implementing Telemedicine During the Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID-19 has turned our personal and professional lives upside down. It has also been a catalyst for all things virtual, including the acceleration of delivery of healthcare through telehealth.

Until a few weeks ago, most of our ambulatory providers administered care through telehealth as a secondary, less preferred option. They used it in cases where the distance between the provider and patient was too far to allow in-person medical care.

Listen to our pediatric experts discuss implementation of telemedicine during the coronavirus pandemic

In this episode, we talk with the Telehealth team at Children’s Hospital Colorado. They share how primary care providers could quickly operationalize the delivery of care through telehealth to help navigate the current COVID-19 pandemic and how it may transform primary care practice post-pandemic.

Christina Olson, MD, Fred Thomas, PhD, and Alison Brent, MD, join us in this podcast. Christina Olson, MD, is Telehealth Medical Director at Children’s Colorado; Fred Thomas, PhD is Director of Telehealth at Children’s Colorado and Executive Director of ECHO Colorado. He has academic appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Family Medicine in the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Our Charting Pediatrics co-host, Alison Brent, MD, is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s Colorado. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the AAP Section of Telehealth Care.

In this episode, our experts discuss:

• What the AAP is doing to support primary care providers in ramping up telehealth within their practice
• Role of telemedicine in well-child and chronic disease visits
• Technical details of starting a telehealth practice
• How to approach the implementation of telehealth based on providers’ goals (short-term response to COVID-19 or long-term part of your practice)
• Evolving changes on payer reimbursement for telehealth visits
• Rules and requirements for patient consent prior to telehealth visits
• Ways to conduct a physical exam during a telehealth visit
• Considerations for documentation of encounter such as technology used during visit and communication of criteria for in-person follow-up visits
• Future state of primary care delivery after the coronavirus pandemic
• Importance of collecting data to track outcomes and help with telehealth advocacy

Telehealth resources mentioned in this episode:

• Email questions to the AAP
• AAP: Coding During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• AAP Guidance: Telehealth Payer Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic
• State Notices on Telehealth Policy
• AAP: Telehealth and After-Hours Care

Treatment of infectious diseases at Children’s Colorado

Our pediatric experts in the Infectious Disease program at Children's Colorado provide a breadth of expertise ranging from laboratory-based research to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Pediatricians can treat many infectious diseases, but when unique or different symptoms are present, it’s important to refer to a pediatric specialist. We are prepared and ready to treat patients with suspected or confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus. Our clinical staff has been specially trained on how to identify, isolate and treat patients with this and other contagious illnesses.