The Health Care Professional’s Guide to Successful Telehealth Program Development is a blog series that provides a step-by-step approach to telehealth program development.
Click here to access the blog series and step-by-step checklist.
So far, you have created a snapshot of potential telehealth opportunities available in your community, identified the population that you want to serve and defined the services that you want to offer, and conducted a needs assessment for the service(s) you want to provide. Now it’s time to conduct a technical needs assessment of your work environment to ensure that the technology available can support the needs of your program.
What do you need to know?
- The assessment is easy to perform; however, it is crucial to the implementation of your program
- You may incur an expense if upgrades are needed to your facility
- Time required to implement upgrades should be factored into your project plan
What do you need to consider?
- Do your exam, conference and staff rooms have internet access?
- Is adequate broadband available to support your program goals?
- Do you have an adequate number of electrical outlets to support additional equipment?
What do you need to do?
- Complete the Needs Assessment Checklist
- Complete the Needs Assessment Worksheet
- Complete the Analysis Worksheet
- Organize and document results to get a clear picture and a detail-driven plan
Resources to get you started!
Visit section 1 of the National Telehealth Resource Center Program Development Guides to access the following resources:
- Technical Needs Assessment Checklist (1.9a)
- Funding for Telehealth: Administration, Clinical, Technology & Broadband Services
