Telehealth QA – Is it all it’s QAcked up to be?
Trudy Bearden, PA-C, MPAS
February 16, 2022
In hopes of sparking renewed commitment to applying improvement science to telehealth, we offer this Telehealth QI and QA Miniseries. Today is the fourth in the series.
Require expertise and excellence in telehealth service delivery. Expertise with telehealth requires deliberate practice which builds on or modifies existing skills, usually with the help and guidance of a coach or teacher with targeted feedback on what to improve and how to improve those skills.
Send staff through telehealth training either internally or externally. The California Telehealth Resource Center Telehealth Course Finder is a great place to start for external telehealth trainings.
Provide peer review of telehealth sessions by inviting a trusted clinician to join a telehealth visit – with patient permission. Debrief after the session to provide feedback and to discuss what went well, what did not go well and what changes can be made to improve
Implement written triage protocols that are easily accessible by all staff to clarify which patients or patient issues are appropriate for telehealth and which need to be seen in person.
Make a commitment to exceptional service delivery.
Solicit and act on patient and staff feedback. Consider including a patient partner or advisor in these efforts. Below are some sample staff and clinician satisfaction survey questions. Some institutions may already incorporate some of these into their existing patient feedback systems (e.g., Press Ganey) so check to see if they are before duplicating efforts. Sometimes it’s best to collect feedback simply and in real time by asking, “How was your visit? What could have gone better?” Read full article here: https://southwesttrc.org/blog/2022/telehealth-qa-it-all-it-s-qacked-be