A Simple Way to Identify Patients Who Need Tech Support for Telemedicine

As telemedicine has quickly become a significant part of ambulatory clinical care, frontline providers and staff have struggled to adapt to one new support role that had not been part of their job descriptions: providing patients with technical assistance. A simple tool developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine whose hospitals and clinics in Maryland, metropolitan Washington, D.C., and Florida serve more than 750,000 patients a year can help.

It automatically identifies patients likely to need technical assistance so either someone from a centralized IT support team or a member of the clinical support or front desk teams can reach out to them before their visit. This approach can help make telemedicine more equitable and ease the extraordinary burden that the pandemic has imposed on care providers’ support staffs.

Like other institutions across the country, Johns Hopkins Medicine experienced an exponential increase in the volume of telemedicine visits during the Covid-19 pandemic, and providers as well as members of our front desk and clinical support teams struggled to help patients navigate this new type of care. Our traditional IT support teams couldn’t adapt quickly enough. They continued to function in a passive way: They offered support to patients who called a help line for technical assistance but did not proactively reach out to them.