Expanding Telehealth During a Pandemic: How 4 Health Systems Did It

Faced with unprecedented challenges, hospitals leverage a variety of tools and strategies to meet a vast need for virtual care.

“The biggest obstacle for virtual care and telehealth has always been adoption,” says Alex Lennox-Miller, a senior analyst with Chilmark Research. “Patients always wanted it, but providers were concerned about the standard of care and the pressure it would put on them. COVID-19 is giving both sides a chance to test this.” The telehealth response to COVID-19 took different forms at different health systems. Some simply expanded current programs or accelerated their timelines for previously scheduled implementations. Others started from scratch, standing up programs in a matter of days.