Dallas-based Medical City Healthcare has deployed more than 650 tech devices to expand telehealth visits across its network, conserve personal protective equipment and curb the spread of COVID-19.
The health system has distributed laptop computers and iPads across its 16 hospitals to allow clinicians and patients to participate in virtual visits.
Medical City Healthcare emergency department physicians can also conduct virtual patient visits, which conserves PPE. The telehealth triage allows physicians to determine whether the patient should be admitted to the hospital, tested or be monitored from home without interacting face-to-face.
"Telehealth triage saves two staff members per patient from going into the room," Medical City Plano ED director Michael Meek, MD, said in a news release emailed to Becker's. "That conservatively translates into 60 donning and doffing sessions per day–saving 420 sets of PPE per week, per facility."