Market Insights: Telehealth Strategy

Patients are increasingly making decisions about who delivers their care and engaging in the delivery of that care digitally. Hospitals and health systems that are working now to increase the maturity of their telehealth capabilities will be well-positioned to meet patient demands for digital tools that allow them to conveniently engage in care. Hospitals that don't address these expectations increasingly will be challenged by new market entrants and other disruptors that seek to attract new health care consumers and encroach on existing patient-provider relationships.

Using Technology to Address the Behavioral Health Crisis

Behavioral health disorders affect 44 million adults in America. Yet fewer than half of this growing population receive the treatment they need. Telebehavioral health offers tremendous potential to improve patient outcomes by transforming care delivery, overcoming geographic distances and enhancing access to care, particularly in underserved and rural areas or both.

The AHA and the National Quality Forum have collaborated to produce Redesigning Care: A How-to Guide for Hospitals and Health Systems Seeking to Implement, Strengthen and Sustain Telebehavioral Health, which describes actionable strategies and interventions and links to a variety of other tools and resources. Whether a health care organization is starting a telebehavioral health program or strengthening an existing one, using this guide can provide better care to a large number of people who need behavioral health services, but don’t have access.

Telehealth: A Path to Virtual Integrated Care

Telehealth is part of a larger digital transformation in health care. The electronic health record, omnipresent mobile devices and faster internet connections have provided new ways for patients and providers to interact. As a result, hospitals and health systems need a strategy for their own digital transformation.

This report from the AHA Center for Health Innovation examines how telehealth is part of a digital health revolution; the flexibility of delivery platforms and how they fit into virtual integrated care; why telehealth is critical to health care transformation; challenges to telehealth expansion; the current state of telehealth and opportunities for growth in hospitals; technology options and choosing the right vendor; and, most importantly, how hospitals and health systems can build capacity to expand access, improve outcomes and reduce costs.