March 30, 2020 / Dr. Stephen K. Klasko
The Jefferson telehealth team has been calling themselves the “Night’s Watch,” a reference to the Game of Thrones border army. And they’re right—telehealth has tackled the first battle in the war against COVID-19.
In January, Jefferson Health’s telehealth program helped up to 50 people a day who used its app for medical emergencies. In the past week, calls were approaching 3,000 a day. Equally importantly, our investment in telehealth, beginning in 2014, means we can help people who have concerns unrelated to COVID—without forcing them to travel.
COVID-19 has taught us two things. We need intensive-care units and a surge capacity for crises. But we also need to help people at home.
Thanks to COVID-19, “healthcare with no address” has gone from a nice futuristic idea to being critical to the future of the industry. Delivering sophisticated healthcare outside of hospitals is the future for our industry and the transformation that will build a new system of “health assurance” for all. For years, healthcare has escaped the consumer delivery-at-home revolution. I always have lamented that we can shop online in our pajamas, but if we need to see a doctor, we have to listen to a dozen options on the phone to get an appointment the following week. As one of my colleagues correctly put it, “In healthcare we have Star Wars technology in a Fred Flintstone delivery system.”
