As workforce issues continue, skilled nursing providers are searching for ways to fill the staffing void. Telemedicine is increasingly seen as a tool to serve both residents and healthcare workers.
In his role as executive director of Leading Age’s CAST, Majd Alwan is seeing a notable uptick in use cases of telemedicine and telehealth in nursing homes.
One popular time-saving application is using telehealth devices to either automatically collect or upload residents’ biometrics into an electronic health record.
Janine Finck-Boyle, LeadingAge vice president for health policy, believes telemedicine is a most valuable complement to a thinning skilled nursing workforce.
“Hundreds of thousands of workers have left the long-term care sector,” she noted. “The reality is that we are looking for professionals that, at the present time, don’t exist.”
In fact, the association has added a sense of urgency to its Workforce Now advocacy campaign by asking Congress and the Administration to make permanent those gains made in telehealth over the course of the pandemic.
Erin McGill, vice president, business development for telemedicine provider Curavi Health, notes some of the more “compelling” uses include:
- Having a distant RN who can do assessments with the help of an unlicensed staff member “telepresenter” at the patient’s bedside.
- Providing “a great teaching tool” to support new, inexperienced nurses. Many facilities are in an endless cycle of training and re-training.
- Increasing morale and improving outcomes by having 24/7 access to licensed physicians.
Teresa Remy, director of consulting for LeaderStat, said telemedicine is an increasingly important workforce adjunct.
“We need to start looking at long-term care through a different lens,” she said. “We need to be proactive and think a bit differently on how we deliver care. The time is now to develop a plan that incorporates all the drivers — reimbursement, technology, and delivering quality and timely care.”
From the September 2022 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
