Telehealth – A new way of caring for OT/PT patients
When you think of telehealth, you may think of providing care across the miles. That’s not always the case. Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy is using telehealth right here, in the homes of local patients. It’s giving patients better access to care and giving therapists a real sense of the home environment to provide more personalized therapy.
“Our interest is to provide the best possible care to the family and help the patient achieve their goals in the most efficient way possible, putting them in a position for better function, better capability,” said Jason Long, director, Motion Analysis Lab, and part of OT/PT’s telehealth implementation team. “Telehealth gives us a chance to optimize care and optimize time frames that fit the patient and their needs.”
Krystin Turner, occupational therapist II, is among the 19 therapists trained or in training to use telehealth for OT/PT. She has specifically used it with premature infants having difficulty with feeding. Invited virtually into the home, where a child is most comfortable, Turner coaches the parent in feeding their child a progression of foods with varying textures and tastes.
Patients undergoing longer term sports rehabilitation, like recovering from knee surgery, have benefitted too. Once patients have reached a certain point in the rehab timeline, they can begin splitting sessions between telehealth and in-person therapy. The telehealth sessions allow the therapists to observe the home exercise program and environment so they can incorporate items available to the patient in the home—for example, using books in place of weights while doing steps.
The division worked with the Anderson Center and the Center for Telehealth in implementing their program. They applied design-thinking when creating the pilot program to understand who the end users were in terms of the therapists, patients, and families—the person who cannot get here physically because of distance, transportation challenges or illness or whose needs are home-based. The program is now poised to grow bigger and stronger.
“We’ve demonstrated that it’s feasible, and it’s reasonable. And, for certain groups of kids, it’s appropriate and maybe even more beneficial than in-person therapy,” said Long.
Therapists have rallied around the opportunity to figure out how to do a job they’ve done for years differently. It’s paying off in making care more accessible to our patients and in improving efficiency with fewer last-minute cancellations and no-shows for appointments.
