Smith WR, Atala AJ, Terlecki RP, Kelly EE, Matthews CA, Smith WR. Implementation Guide for Rapid Integration of an Outpatient Telemedicine Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Am Coll Surg.

Smith and co-authors describe the process of developing and integrating telemedicine capability into a surgical practice. They note that during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing has been necessary to help prevent disease transmission. Consequently, medical and surgical practices have limited access to in-person visits. This approach poses a challenge to maintain appropriate patient care while preventing a substantial backlog of patients once stay-at-home restrictions are lifted.

In practices that are naive to telehealth as an alternative to in-person care, providers and staff are experiencing challenges with telemedicine implementation. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to rapidly integrate telemedicine into practice during a pandemic.

The authors built a toolkit that details eight essential components to successful implementation of a telemedicine platform: provider and staff training, patient education, an existing electronic medical record system, patient and provider investment in hardware, billing and coding integration, information technology support, audiovisual platforms, and patient and caregiver participation.

Rapid integration of telemedicine was required to be compliant with the institution's COVID-19 task force. Within three days of documentation of compliance, the large specialty-care clinic converted to a telemedicine platform and completed 638 visits within the first month of implementation. Effective and efficient integration of a telemedicine program requires extensive staff and patient education, accessory platforms to facilitate video and audio communication, and adoption of new billing codes outlined in this toolkit. 

(reposted from ACS August 4th Bulletin Brief)