Athenahealth launches new EHR-embedded telehealth tool
Athenahealth declared this week that it experienced released an embedded telehealth resource to allow practitioners to carry out virtual visits without having owning to obtain separate computer software or use a further 3rd-bash application.
The Watertown, Massachusetts-dependent cloud computing seller claimed athenaTelehealth – which is absolutely free for its athenaOne digital well being report resource prospects right up until September thirty – permits vendors to more simply carry out HIPAA-compliant telehealth visits inside of follow workflows, from scheduling to affected person messaging, video clip conferencing, simultaneous-encounter documentation and billing.
“I have been making use of athenaTelehealth completely in my family members drugs follow for several weeks now,” claimed Dr. Dillon Miller, a Blue Ridge, Ga-dependent medical doctor, in a statement. “My individuals and my employees comprehend telehealth is the foreseeable future of affected person treatment, and I am happy to see athenahealth has specified us a product to aid this new conventional of treatment.”
WHY IT Matters
Practitioners all-around the region have noticed skyrocketing telehealth appointment quantities since the start of COVID-19, and athenahealth says it truly is no exception.
In accordance to the organization, “the athenahealth community observed a 3,four hundred{d5f2c26e8a2617525656064194f8a7abd2a56a02c0e102ae4b29477986671105} general raise in day by day telehealth visits from mid-February to late April.”
By right integrating video clip conferencing inside of the athenaOne EHR, the organization says it hopes to streamline affected person and service provider working experience.
“People can simply obtain their telehealth consultations from any pc or cellular system with a modern-day internet browser and built-in camera – no further computer software or integration needed,” according to athenahealth.
The organization says athenaTelehealth “leverages existing affected person interaction channels, which include e-mail and text information dependent on affected person choices, and provides telehealth guidelines and a seamless affected person working experience.”
Nurses can comprehensive affected person intake via the EHR and then initiate a so-identified as virtual handoff to practitioners.
In an athenaTelehealth demo video clip, a organization consultant clarifies that a medical doctor has obtain to “the identical array of documentation varieties out there in a telehealth encounter as she would in a common clinic-dependent test.”
Supplied that individuals could want the existence of professional medical interpreters, treatment crew associates, advocates or further guidance, the resource permits up to 4 persons to sign up for consultations from any system with a camera. It is unclear whether individuals without having obtain to broadband, smartphones or other webcams can also search for treatment via athenaTelehealth.
THE Bigger Trend
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to necessitate social distancing all through the region, a plethora of telemedicine vendors have stepped up to the plate, providing videoconferencing and remote affected person-checking, amid other possibilities for treatment.
At the identical time, gurus have warned of the potential security concerns with the telehealth explosion, specially specified the speed at which a lot of well being units have rolled out substantially bigger telehealth deployments than they could have been utilised to.
“Any time you make a alter to an IT setting, you have the potential to raise threat,” claimed Andy Riley, government director of security strategy at the managed-security-solutions seller Nuspire.
“When you introduce immediate alter, that potential goes up quickly,” he claimed.
ON THE History
“The skill to deliver our individuals with a telehealth platform that permits HIPAA compliance although in the encounter completely transformed our telemedicine support,” claimed Deb Twardowski, a board-licensed superior nurse practitioner with Western Professional medical Associates. “Western Professional medical Associates has been an athenahealth consumer for 14 a long time, and we were being overwhelmingly impressed with the company’s immediate progress of a telehealth alternative to treatment for our individuals throughout the pandemic.”
Kat Jercich is senior editor of Health care IT Information.
Twitter: @kjercich
Health care IT Information is a HIMSS Media publication.