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Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person social life across the world, digital solutions in healthcare exploded in use. Healthcare providers found that some patients struggled with digital health literacy.
Digital solutions make it easier for patients to access health information and improve their self-care, but some barriers and disparities remain. These challenges are particularly acute for older patients, some ethnic and racial minority groups, and others.
Telemedicine was in the spotlight as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services relaxed regulations that had limited application of teleservices throughout the country. Many hospitals quickly engaged telemedicine services to connect providers with patients and families. Now, with the initial surge a few months past, healthcare analysts are assessing the lessons learned.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals received the go-ahead to expand telemedicine/telehealth services via a waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This was focused on limiting community spread of the virus, as well as reducing the exposure to other patients and staff members to slow viral spread.
Two years ago, Dosher Memorial Hospital was losing one of its three hospitalists. This small-town hospital in Southport, NC, needed to fill the slot quickly, which had never been easy. Yet without that hospitalist, there would be no overnight coverage.
Results of a comprehensive study, analyzing more than 6 million Medicare admissions, revealed declining 30-day hospital readmissions from 2009 to 2014. Some policymakers have attributed the decline to the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, introduced in 2010. But researchers found the declining readmissions also could be explained by declining hospital admission rates over the same period.
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Financial Disclosure: Author Melinda Young, Author Jeanie Davis, Editor Jill Drachenberg, Editor Jonathan Springston, Editorial Group Manager Leslie Coplin, and Nurse Planner Toni Cesta, PhD, RN, FAAN, report no consultant, stockholder, speaker’s bureau, research, or other financial relationships with companies having ties to this field of study.
