Health and Wellness Informatics News
Telemedicine discourages no-shows and cancellation at the Behavioral Health Services North, New York
COVID-19 has enabled the New York behavioral health provider to embrace telehealth.
Since then, it is going in sync with the technology and using it to provide an improved number of services to the patients.
Before the pandemic hitting, Behavioral health services in North Plattsburgh, New York not used to use telehealth. This was due to their regulatory constraints. Also, their staff considers it as some cumbersome practice.
During the time of the pandemic, New York state appeared very aggressive in offering the regulations for telehealth. This is to allow the healthcare organizations to move towards care in the virtual environment to practice social distancing.
As Shelby LaRock, the executive business partner at BHSN, says that their program staff connects with the clients using the audio and video connections. They are predominantly using the Zoom for telemedicine encounters. It also includes Skype, Teams, and telephone.
The organization uses My Avatar of Netsmart to keep the electronic health record. The telehealth technology that BHSN is using includes 50 providers and 3000 clients to receive the counseling clinically. It also includes medication management and the appointment for the clinical intake, and many more.
With the advancement of telehealth, BHSN continues to build its own virtual care to expand its platform for the capabilities. The implementation of the telehealth platform has added the pepper organization for safe care. This has revolutionized the healthcare system. With telehealthcare, providers are allowed to add flexibility to their work. They are able to attend to the clients during business hours and also able to maintain the social distancing due to COVID.
Through the use of telemedicine, BHSN is now seeing an uptick in the service providing number. Also, there is a decrease in the no-show and the cancellation rates. The engagement with the clients on the virtual platform is better than before.
BHSN got the FCC telehealth funding program award worth $39181 for the monitors, connected devices, and medication management. It also connects the health monitoring and rehabilitation services with the remote monitoring of patients to avoid the risk of COVID -19. This is taking telehealth to another level for the BHSN.