If anything good comes from the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth will fall into that category, Hudson Headwaters Health Network Chief Medical Informatics Officer Dr. Kevin Gallagher said.
“I think this is an exciting time in health care and a really great opportunity for us to redesign our care delivery,” he said in an interview about the organization’s telehealth program, which expanded rapidly to accommodate COVID-19 concerns and social distancing guidelines.
“I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg with how we can get creative with this.”
Hudson Headwaters Community Relations Manager Jane Hooper said the network was planning to introduce telehealth this year over a number of months, but the pandemic dramatically upped that timeline.
Gallagher joined Hudson Headwaters March 2, and just days later telehealth became the main focus of his work as the organization had to start addressing how to minimize COVID-19 exposure for patients and providers.