University of Wisconsin Study Eyes a Telehealth Model for Nursing Homes

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is looking to develop a telehealth model for nursing homes.

The Madison-based school is launching a study to gather data on how four nursing homes in the state have used connected health platforms during the coronavirus pandemic to reduce in-person contact between patients and care providers while still managing their care.

“We saw this as an opportunity to study how telehealth implementation occurs; the barriers and challenges with rapid implementation, and the opportunities to redesign the telehealth work model in nursing home to make it more efficient and effective,” Christopher Crnich, MD, PhD, an associate professor of infectious disease and the study’s coordinator, said in a press release.

“There are challenges, but improved telehealth could mean fewer costly clinic visits for nursing home residents and more frequent assessments that can facilitate faster patient care,” he added.

Funded by a grant from the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and a Wisconsin Public Partnership Program 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant Award, the study, titled “Improving and Evaluating Virtual Health to Enhance Physical Distancing Measures in Wisconsin Nursing Homes,” could be used as a blueprint for other facilities looking to adopt telehealth.

“What we hope to get out of this is kind of a toolkit the helps people identify the right people, tasks and tools to get the job done right,” Crnich says in a YouTube video explaining the project.

The results could prove helpful to nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and other sites that have struggled to embrace telehealth, often because of technical costs, a lack of support from staff or reimbursement issues that short-circuit sustainability. Federal and state governments have relaxed coverage and access rules to support telehealth during the COVID-19 emergency, but those measures will end when the emergency does.