Hospitals and healthcare organizations have taken the necessary move towards embracing telehealth services to provide care to
existing and new patients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many are left wondering what this means for their existing
risk/incident reporting processes – now and in the future. Currently the level of risk is already at an all-time high for both
patients and healthcare organizations due to this crisis, which makes it vital that consistent procedures and protections are in
place to assist with risk mitigation strategies.
Whether you are thinking about or have expanded your telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, you should strive to
have processes in place to ensure any events that should occur are entered into your healthcare patient safety/risk management
software systems. The only way to learn from incidents is to do analysis, and by utilizing a patient safety/risk management
solution, such as Ventiv's Patient Safety event reporting tool, healthcare organizations and providers can be better prepared for
the potential second COVID-19 wave.
Below is a checklist with key tactics to assist with developing optimal telehealth strategies that minimize your risk and
the patient's.
By reporting and documenting events accordingly, hospitals can learn from their events and do incident analysis. Although this
seems like an extra step (especially during a pandemic!) it is important to realize that having access to such data, will prepare
you all the more for the next disaster.
To get more information on risk management tactics contact Heather Annolino at heather.annolino@ventivtech.com.
Credentialing
Ensure the facility providing the telemedicine
practitioner complies with required credentialing
standards.
Consider the relevant licensing and regulatory
requirements for APNs and PAs.
Confirm nurse practitioners have a collaborative
agreement and prescriptive authority.
Require that both the hospital and the
telemedicine provider have professional liability
insurance at a specified coverage level.
Check your state's standard of care for
telemedicine rules about the session.
Obtain licensure requirements guidance from the
FSMB for license portability.
Develop and maintain a list of telemedicine
providers.
In addition to clinical notes, ensure that your
staff documents all other details of the session.
Security, Privacy and Confidentiality during COVID-19
Develop backup and downtime procedures.
Establish secure procedures for patient encounters.
Create ease of access to existing medical records.
Implement an effective method of patient authentication.
Provide cyber security protections.
Use OCR's suggested applications to provide telehealth.
Informed Consent
Check the informed consent requirements in your state.
Require patient consent forms to be in accordance with state guidelines.
Ensure physicians know the informed consent requirements for telemedicine.
Define the scope of service for each type of telemedicine service provided.
Criteria for patient selection.
Process for managing patient-provided health information.
Archiving and retrieval of video and images as applicable.
Prescribing practices.
CHECKLIST
Minimizing Your Risk and the Patient's When Expanding
Telehealth Services During COVID-19
