Telehealth is simple, right? All you need is an internet connection and an iPhone. Maybe, it could be that simple. But we'd like you to consider a few other things in the mix.
Site Coordinator When you're working remotely with your clients, we want to make the experience as comfortable as possible. In our experience, when you can get a few local organisations on your side, the implementation of telehealth in the rural and regional areas will become a lot smoother. If you can find a site coordinator, such as a GP who is willing for clients to use a room in their office or perhaps a school who has a spare room for students to access your service. This allows for the stability of the internet connection, alleviates any frustrations the client has with connecting and makes it possible to have the appropriate lighting and tech help you may need/want.
Ways to accept payments When you move to a "cloud-practice" (we're going to explore this more in May!) you'll find that it's easier to streamline as much as possible with your clients. This includes payments. If you've found a secure way to store client credit card details (see our older posts here about this), then you can implement the same workflow process with your clients who are seen through the telehealth service.
Outsourcing The wonderful thing about telehealth is that you don't have to have space or clinicians in your own office! You can find clinicians in inner cities who are seeking work and outsource the work to them. When you have the governance, you can scale.
Stability This word encompasses a few things. One, you don't want an unreliable wifi connection to cause your session interruptions. When you use your trusty old ethernet cable instead of your wireless connection, you stabilise your connection. The other stability we're talking about is your camera. If you are using your phone, get a phone holder, so you aren't moving the phone around for the hour you're in session.
Risk Management How are you managing risk? Telehealth seems all well and good until you run into a massive issue of risk. Risk could be as easy as a client who isn't in a secure room. What happens with "data breach" if a client has someone walk in on them during their session? Is this a reportable data breach?
With all things considered, we aren't saying don't provide telehealth services. We're just saying consider the whole picture, even things a sole individual may not know to think.
