A Telehealth Strategy's Core Elements
First of all, a well-developed Telehealth Strategy conveys a vision that aligns with the organization's overall strategy. It helps staff to find the answer to the inevitable questions "why is this important?", "why should I care?", and "why will this be different than any other change?".
Next, the telehealth strategy must demonstrate how telehealth will be used to drive the organization’s strategic objectives - again, to drive the buy-in by everyone in the organization.
Given the financial situation for most healthcare organizations, the next logical step is to ensure that the telehealth program overall has a financial case that creates a positive overall ROI across the program of all telehealth services - from direct revenues as well as indirect revenues, taking a systems point of view .
Embedded in the first three elements of the Telehealth Strategy is also the assessment of the demand as well as the competition, creating another compelling argument for the “why” of telehealth.
One of the most important aspects of a telehealth strategy is to define and apply the process by which current and future telehealth use cases can be evaluated and prioritized. With hundreds of potential use cases each mature organization must develop its own rubrik to quickly assess a proposed telehealth service’s fit with the organization’s overall telehealth strategy.
Far less important, but nonetheless essential is the definition of the principles behind the decision making process on new telehealth technology solutions and strategies to reign in and consolidate any wild growth of unofficial technologies.
The embracing of telehealth as a care delivery mechanism is first and foremost a change management effort and only secondarily a “customer education” effort. Internal resistance, frustration, confusion and sometimes outright hostility is by far the key reason behind the failure of most telehealth programs. As such, a telehealth strategy must outline the strategies and principles behind engaging the clinicians and staff.
Last, but not least, the telehealth strategy, like any good business plan, must lay out the staffing model to support the launch of new services; support the ongoing operations; and guiding the organization through leadership.
Driving Buy-in Through a Telehealth Strategy
The primary value of a telehealth strategy lies in increased buy-in resulting in a much smoother implementation and fewer false starts. This also results in fewer wasted resources, such as the investment in the wrong technology, or the failure to establish a service because a key champion leaves the organization.
Without a telehealth strategy, the implementation of a telehealth service has numerous opportunities to encounter resistance from many sides: IT, finance, billing, nursing, providers, and even patients. Without a plan, implementations can drag on forever, especially if the opportunity of a good "first impression" is missed.
In my experience, a well thought out plan however, engages key opinion leaders and is the key reason for immediate and lasting, sustainable success; especially if the long-term goal is to incorporate elements of telehealth and telemedicine across the organization.
Telehealth Tuesday Trigger
Does your organization have a Telehealth Strategy? Has it been updated since the beginning of the Covid-19 health crisis? Which elements does your strategy not cover? What elements does it contain that I did not address here?
For a complimentary consultation on how to create or improve on your organization’s telehealth strategy, contact Christian per the options below.