What Not to Do: Telehealth Lessons Learned—a Video Series from TDC Group and Candello

The rising adoption of telehealth has highlighted the myriad challenges it presents to patients, providers, and healthcare systems. In this video series, TDC Group and Candello feature patient safety leaders and risk management experts who provide guidance and practice management tips to improve virtual care for all.

Clinical Considerations

In this video, experts discuss what to consider when deciding to use virtual visits, how to handle triage in virtual care, how to ensure accurate diagnoses with telehealth, strategies for providing quality patient care during a virtual visit, developing good web-side manner, and when to convert a virtual visit into an in-person visit.

Equity Considerations

In this video, experts discuss how to anticipate and address barriers to telehealth access for patients, including varying levels of digital literacy and access to appropriate technology and adequate internet speeds.

Legal Considerations

This video explores how the legal landscape for telehealth is changing nearly daily, making it vital for clinicians to stay up to date on the rules and regulations. Experts discuss the rules for practicing across state lines, considerations for prescribing medications over telehealth, guidelines for choosing virtual care for different health conditions or circumstances, ensuring informed consent, and documenting virtual care for third-party payers.

Technical Considerations

In this video, experts address picking and setting up a virtual care system, conducting privacy and security audits, integrating the care system with the EHR, camera and microphone choices, preparing patients for virtual visits, and how to troubleshoot technology issues during telehealth calls.

Managing the Unexpected

This video explores the ways virtual visits can go sideways, strategies to handle those situations (including rescheduling the visit, converting the visit to in-person, and problem-solving during the visit), how to create a backup plan to handle technology issues, what to look for in patient behaviors and environment to evaluate the patient’s safety, and managing patient expectations with virtual care.

Additional Resources

The guidelines suggested here are not rules, do not constitute legal advice, and do not ensure a successful outcome. The ultimate decision regarding the appropriateness of any treatment must be made by each healthcare provider considering the circumstances of the individual situation and in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the care is rendered.