Staying Connected In The COVID-19 Pandemic: Telehealth At The Largest Safety-Net System In The United States
Staying Connected In The COVID-19 Pandemic: Telehealth At The Largest Safety-Net System In The United States
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DOI：
10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00903
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发表时间：
2020-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
9.7
通讯作者：
Chokshi, Dave A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lau, Jen;Knudsen, Janine;Chokshi, Dave A.
纽约市健康和医院是美国最大的安全网络医疗保健提供系统。在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行之前，纽约市健康+医院每年为100多万名患者提供服务，其中包括最脆弱的纽约人，而每月的远程医疗访问不到500次。大流行爆发后，我们制定了一项战略，使我们能够继续为现有患者服务，同时治疗激增的新患者。从2020年3月开始，我们能够使用虚拟护理平台改造该系统，通过该平台，我们在一个月内进行了近8.3万次收费电视访问，并通过电话和视频进行了3万多次行为健康就诊。远程医疗还使我们能够支持患者与家属的沟通、出院后随访以及对COVID-19患者的姑息治疗。扩大医疗补助覆盖范围和远程医疗保险报销在这一转变中发挥了关键作用。随着我们转向虚拟和面对面护理的新结合，至关重要的是，我们必须维持支持COVID-19远程医疗应对的重大监管和保险变革，以保护我们最脆弱的患者获得服务。
New York City Health + Hospitals is the largest safety-net health care delivery system in the United States. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, NYC Health + Hospitals served more than one million patients annually, including the most vulnerable New Yorkers, while billing fewer than five hundred telehealth visits monthly. Once the pandemic struck, we established a strategy to allow us to continue to serve our existing patients while treating the surge of new patients. Starting in March 2020, we were able to transform the system using virtual care platforms through which we conducted almost eighty-three thousand billable televisits in one month, as well as more than thirty thousand behavioral health encounters via telephone and video. Telehealth also enabled us to support patient-family communication, postdischarge follow-up, and palliative care for patients with COVID-19. Expanded Medicaid coverage and insurance reimbursement for telehealth played a pivotal role in this transformation. As we move to a new blend of virtual and in-person care, it is vital that the major regulatory and insurance changes undergirding our COVID-19 telehealth response be sustained to protect access for our most vulnerable patients.