Stacy Petty, APRN, is the Director for the HealthNow direct-to-consumer program, which rolled out in January 2020 through the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This start-up was on the cusp of the COVID-19 pandemic and no one could foresee the world’s rush to access and utilize telehealth. Initially intended for general, real-time access to healthcare, this direct-to-patient program rapidly adapted to focus on the enormous demand in Arkansas for coronavirus screenings and to provide answers by qualified healthcare providers. After UAMS was able to implement a separate COVID-19 screening protocol, the HealthNow team returned to its original mission to provide general healthcare services to the people of Arkansas. The following are insights shared by Director Petty regarding telehealth implementation, challenges, and lessons learned.
Lessons learned: “Don’t go live until you have the majority of the kinks worked out. Prepare to be flexible and roll with the punches because there are plenty of things you didn’t anticipate or think of.”
Successes: “Hearing how much the patients appreciated our service is what made it all worth it. Being able to completely flip our service to COVID screenings within 12 hours and be able to maintain a massive volume of calls was solely due to the amazing team work and dedication of the staff.”
Challenges: “Getting the word out about our service; especially to rural Arkansans. Marketing in a way that reaches a broad patient base. Helping non tech-savvy patients with the technology glitches they experience.”
Words of wisdom: “Hire a fantastic team. Have faith that it will work out–maybe not as you expected, but it will be ok. Ask for help when you need it. See the value of what your service offers and really believe in it.”
Have a Real World Example of your own?
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