Building a Sustainable Telehealth Network

1
Building a Sustainable Telehealth Network

• Dr. Sarah Muttitt
• Director Senior Telehealth Consultant
• TecKnowledge Professional Services

2
TeleHealth Evolutionary Chain
Future Standard of Care
Present Sustainability
80s - 90s Viability
60s - 70s Feasibility / Pilots
3
Trends Technology Used to Deliver Healthcare
Over Distance

• Healthcare
• Integration of healthcare services delivery
• Increasing demand and complexity
• Reduction in administrative (and financial)
  burden
• Technology as opportunity
• TeleHealth
• Pilot projects to Clinical programs
• TeleHealth expected to pay for itself realistic?
• Integration with existing systems (HL7, etc.)
• Easier to use/more accessible
• Sharing of technology and layering of applications

4
Lessons Learned

• Telehealth is not just about the technology
• To be successful, telehealth must be integrated
  into the healthcare delivery system
• Excellent program design, support and ongoing
  management are essential

5
What makes a telehealth network successful?

• The number of sites?
• The elaborateness of the technology?
• The spent?
• The hype?

6
Success

• For Operational Networks, its
• Usage..
• Usage..
• Usage..

7
Sustainability

• If network usage defines a successful telehealth
  program
• then .
• Ongoing network usage defines a sustainable
  telehealth program

8
Achieving Sustainability

• Increased Awareness
• Increased Buy-in and Acceptance
• Optimized Use of Applications
• Integration with Clinical Delivery
• Effective and Efficient Utilization of Network
  and Coordination of Resources
• Reliable, Clinically Valid, and Easy to Use
  Technology

9
Leadership Governance
10
Advice

• Be clear about what you are trying to sustain
• Be both practical and visionary
• Involve all your key stakeholders
• Address all the critical dimensions
• Dont be afraid to ask hard questions and make
  some tough decisions
• Create different scenarios and test on paper
• Its not all about
• Think utilization and integration

• 2001 TecKnowledge