Maryland Launches mHealth Program to Screen, Treat COVID-19 Patients at Home
The state's Department of Health is partnering with a telehealth company to screen and treat people in some of the state's most vulnerable communities. New York officials launched a similar program last month.
Maryland’s Department of Health has launched a telehealth program aimed at bringing COVID-19 screening and care into the homes of the state’s vulnerable populations.
With the state seeing its biggest one-day increase in coronavirus cases this week, the department is teaming up with Ready Responders, a New Orleans-based provider of mobile integrated health services to targeted populations. The effort aims to move triage to the home and take the pressure off of ambulance and EMS providers and hospital emergency departments.
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“With the stay-at-home order and limited access to doctors, 911 and the emergency department is a first resort for a lot of people,” Howard Haft, executive director at the Maryland Department of Health, said in a press release.
The partnership with Ready Responders, he said, will “offer COVID testing on a mass scale by targeting hotspots and vulnerable communities, bringing medical care to the hardest hit populations.”
The program is targeting homeless communities, assisted living complexes and other areas where residents face barriers to healthcare access. More than 1,000 people have been screen and more than 500 tested in the past few weeks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a similar partnership roughly one month ago, taking aim at some of New York City’s most densely-packed neighborhoods.
‘We have a need and responsibility to get the assistance we need to people in low income communities,” he said in an April 20 press conference, in which he announced the pilot program in conjunction with the New York City Housing Authority. “That's where the virus spreads. We are going to set up a test program in NYCHA, where we're going to have on-site health services and testing in the New York City area, with New York City Housing Authority projects, working with local officials. We're doing it as a pilot program to see how it works. If it works well, we will go further with it.”
Initially developed as a means of reducing unnecessary 911 calls by bringing telehealth services to the home, MIH programs – including community paramedicine programs – are being tailored to address the ongoing pandemic. Healthcare providers are using these programs to triage and treat people at home rather than have them visit overcrowded hospitals and clinics.
