Why Telehealth Solutions Are Vital in a Disaster

When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, some hospitals were effectively turned into islands, cut off from the rest of the city by floodwaters that covered low-lying roadways. As a result, many physicians were unable to drive to the hospitals where they worked, leaving patients to rely on whoever happened to be on duty when the waters rose.

Luckily, Access Physicians, a group that provides acute telemedicine care to hospitals around the country, was already working with a number of facilities in the area — including some smaller healthcare centers that had no physicians at all onsite at the time of the storm. During regular operations, Access Physicians typically provides specialty care. But in the wake of Harvey, the organization’s remote doctors assumed responsibility for the day-to-day duties of the hospitals’ regular physicians.