North Carolina Hospice Receives Grant to Support Telehealth Service

A North Carolina hospice is getting a $36,000 grant to support its two-year-old telehealth service.

The Hospice of Davidson County, based in Lexington, is getting funding from the Foundation for a Healthy Carolina to bolster TapCloud, a connected health platform that enables hospice patients and their families to connect virtually with care providers to discuss care management, medication adherence and other issues. The platform also allows care providers to bring in family members and other no matter where they’re located.

“As hospice care providers, we are called upon to ensure accessible and supportive care for our patients and their families,” Jennifer Everhart, the chief financial officer for the Hospice of Davidson County, told The Dispatch. “Our continued use and expansion of TapCloud and its many virtual support services allow us to do just that.”

Hospices and palliative care providers across the country have been embracing telehealth and mHealth tools over the past few years as a means of reducing stress on patients and their families and giving care providers a quicker, more effective path to care management. Those services have been vital during the coronavirus pandemic, which reduced many in-person services.

“Care planning and care decisions are very personal and very relational,” Dr. Christopher P. Comfort, the Medical Director of New York City’s Calvary Hospital, said in a February 2019 interview with mHealthIntelligence. “But there really is not the manpower of palliative care specialists to provide those services face-to-face. There’s a wonderful opportunity here to … make this (process) better.”