The Virtual House Call

Mention the future of home care, and providers will always bring up the topic of baby boomers. Much is known about who the baby boomers are, but what about the social characteristics of the physicians and other health care professionals who will be caring for this aging demographic?

According to telehealth advocates, today's physicians are more technologically perceptive than ever, and gaining their referrals will require HME providers to be just as hard-wired. And, they say, DME dealers can benefit from the burgeoning trend by providing the equipment necessary to run a telehealth program.

These programs not only speak to tech-savvy physicians, but they also keep patients home longer and out of hospitals and emergency rooms while saving home care businesses money on home visits. Telehealth programs also are able to attract business from other areas.

Sentara Home Care Services is an HME provider that jumped on telehealth early on. The Chesapeake, Va.-based provider was the first company in the region to implement a telehealth program as well as to negotiate reimbursement for the services from a major third-party payer. The company says salespeople are using telehealth to differentiate Sentara from its competitors because no other businesses are yet using this kind of technology.

“It gets our foot in the door at physicians' offices,” says Rhonda Chetney, MS, RN, director of clinical operations for Sentara. “We're dealing with a lot of younger physicians these days who grew up playing Nintendo, and they feel confident taking care of patients this way. The program certainly has brought us other referrals.”

JCAHO-accredited, Senatra is the largest integrated health care provider in Southeastern Virginia. With five locations, the company provides home medical equipment, respiratory services and infusion therapy, nursing and social services. Sentara also operates six acute care hospitals and one extended stay hospital. But telehealth is the program that is helping the company grow.

“We threw our hats in the ring by stepping out into the technology world,” says Ray Darcey, Sentara's vice president. “Telehealth is an essential component of health care delivery today, and we want to be part of that.”

The company's four-year-old telehealth program targets four areas of home care: wound care, pediatric asthma, chronic heart failure and hospice. Each program is interactive, meaning that a PC-based system with a monitor helps patients communicate with nurses and specialists manning a centralized computer.