Four Strategies to Make Telehealth Work for Senior Patients

Executives and frontline providers at Iora Health, Oak Street Health, ChenMed, and Landmark Health offer suggestions to primary healthcare providers to maximize the value of telehealth among senior patients, reports Harvard Business Review . "Video visits provide so much more information than telephonic visits: 'Does the patient look sick?' 'What is his home environment like?'," says Iora Health CEO Rushika Fernandopulle. ChenMed Chief Growth Officer Gaurav Dayal supports additional information technology investments "to create an easy-to-use, safe, and secure video visit experience." Because older patients can lack access to the Internet or appropriate devices, Iora and Oak Street provide tablets to remedy this problem. Also concerning is that seniors may suffer medical conditions that impede their use of telehealth, and solutions include Landmark's engagement of non-clinician caregivers — mainly patients' family members — in telehealth visits to enable communication between patient and doctor. A third strategy involves "practice visits," like those organized by Iora and Oak Street, to assist patients with telehealth technology but limited digital literacy. In dealing with highest-risk patients who require regular monitoring of their vital signs, all four providers took steps to add objective physical measurements to telehealth visits.