Telemedicine at Yale New Haven Health: Letting Patients Make the Call

// By Marcia Simon, APR //

Consumers want faster access to healthcare, providers want to improve the patient relationship, and reimbursement rates for telemedicine are getting better. Combine these factors and it becomes clear — telemedicine is going mainstream.

Telemedicine claims have increased 624 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to FAIR Health, a nonprofit healthcare data collection company. Most of these virtual doctor visits are with non-hospital physicians, but the landscape is evolving rapidly.

Michael Farrell, senior vice president of hospitals and health systems, MDLIVE

“Telehealth increases access to patients outside a hospital’s primary catchment area, but it’s not just about getting new patients. Nobody wants to lose patients either,” says Michael Farrell, senior vice president of hospitals and health systems for MDLIVE, a supplier of virtual medical, behavioral health, and dermatology care. “Telehealth decreases leakage,” Farrell adds.

Telehealth can help to alleviate many challenges that systems face today. For Yale New Haven Health, telemedicine is part of a strategy to prevent physician burnout for a growing health system with multiple locations. “Putting a specialist in a car for a few extra hours is not a good use of time,” says Lisa Stump, chief information officer for Yale New Haven Health.

Are your providers burning out from shuttling to your health system’s multiple suburban and rural locations? Is there a better way to manage their time without compromising quality of care? Our previous story on provider-to-provider telemedicine explains how systems are bringing subspecialty care to a wider geographic area. This patient-to-provider telehealth article explains how patients are driving the patient-physician relationship.

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