Johns Hopkins Medicine plans to continue building momentum of its telehealth program after the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Baltimore-based health system's CEO anticipating 30 percent of visits to be delivered virtually, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Before the pandemic, Johns Hopkins conducted a few dozen telehealth visits each day and now completes about 5,500 virtual visits per day. Paul Rothman, MD, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, discussed the future of telehealth at the health system and across the industry during a June 22 virtual OurCrowd Pandemic Innovation conference.
Here are three quotes from Dr. Rothman:
1. On plans for Johns Hopkins telehealth future: "About 30 percent of visits we used to have in person will be via telehealth in the future," he said. "Telehealth gives us the ability to reach out where we didn’t before. We are an international healthcare provider, and it grants us access to patients who didn't want to travel."
2. On certain issues with telehealth: "Some visits have to occur in person to do physical exams, and that will still occur in the future. In addition, especially for new patients, there is a bonding that goes on in person that you cannot replicate during televisits."
3. On permanent changes: "The size of waiting rooms will go down in the long term, and there will be a lot of changes to ensure patient safety," he said. "That has implications for the size of [hospital] spaces, the number of employees and their skill-sets."