Virtually Connecting Patients to Care

Incorporating telehealth modalities of care into community health center practices can be the key to ensuring timely access to the increased demand for specialty care amongst the newly insured in California, and across the country. The Center for Connected Health Policy’s Specialty Care Safety Net Initiative (SCSNI) used telehealth to connect patients in rural and urban medically underserved communities with health specialists in six high-need disciplines.

Over the span of three years, SCSNI clinics successfully referred over 3,000 patients for specialty care in offices as far as 600 miles apart. The Center for Connected Health Policy also identified ten keys to success that help clinics to successfully establish, integrate, and use telehealth to increase patient access to specialty care.

See the report.