As an FNP working in a federally funded community clinic, I can see many benefits to using telehealth. I would utilize a combination of models, but one I see as being very helpful are the RPM and Store&Forward. Many of my patients have chronic diseases, with diabetes being one of the most common. Remote program monitoring or RPM followed by storing and forwarding of that information can allow for better control of a diabetics A1C in a safe way. While our goal is for diabetics to keep their A1C below 7, we don’t want it to come at the cost of life-threatening hypoglycemic events. It is overwhelming for pt.’s when they get a new diagnosis of DM. Having a provider to help monitor their progress and better titrate medications may help improve glycemic control and patient outcomes. These two modalities are also more convenient for both patients and providers and cut down on in office visit times.
The clinic I work in has a 40% no show rate as there are many barriers to patients being able to physically come to appointments. Again, the RPM and store & forward, will help remove some of the barriers of coming to an appointment and hopefully pick up any declines in health much earlier. While there were many hardships during the pandemic, telehealth is one of the great things to come out of it and I hope to see the technology only continue to grow.
