Designing Telehealth Solutions for Better Outcomes
GET TO KNOW US
Terri SeppalaTerri Seppala is the President and CEO of Telehealth Associates, Inc. Prior to forming Telehealth Associates, Terri was the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at American TeleCare, Inc., leading sales and marketing for telemedicine/telehealth solutions for commercial and Medicare/Medicaid accounts.
Read MoreShe gained wide exposure to health care technology in executive positions with Medtronic, Computer Associates, Oracle, and 3M. Terri chaired the Board of Directors of Health Partners, Inc. in Minneapolis and started the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association National State Chapters.
Dixie ComeauDixie Comeau is Principal Consultant for Telehealth Associates, drawing upon her background and over 30 years of experience and expertise in communications, planning, operations, technology, change management and telemedicine program management at companies including Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.
Read More(UL), Newsday, Brookhaven National Laboratory and The Entrepreneur Center. She helps clients formulate and articulate telehealth plans, design workflows, identify resources and plan the implementation work.
Rosemary Glavan, RNRosemary Glavan, a Registered Nurse, is the clinical director for Telehealth Associates. She brings over 25 years of executive leadership and clinical experience in care management programs and a successful track record in areas such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, digital health, health plan
Read Moreoperations, urgent and chronic care management, population health, renal care and transitional care management.Previously, Rosemary served as Chief Nursing Officer and SVP at AMC Health.
James Powell MDDr. James Powell, a board-certified Internist, provides medical services and oversight to Telehealth Associates. As Chief Medical Officer of Long Island Select Healthcare (LISH), a Federally Qualified Health Center in New York, he oversees LISH’s telehealth clinic as well as the clinical operations of over 70 providers delivering Medical,
Read MoreDental, Behavioral and habilitative care.He is also Medical Director to Developmental Disabilities Institute and United Cerebral Palsy of Suffolk County and a clinical instructor at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.
TELEHEALTH ASSOCIATES INC.
WHO WE ARETelehealth Associates, Inc., a New York State Certified Woman-Owned Business, is a multi-faceted telemedicine consulting company working in the virtual care space. Virtual care includes remote patient monitoring programs in the home, e-Consultations with two-way synchronous video teleconsultations between patient and clinician, virtual diagnostic assessments in the home conducted by a remote clinician, interactive voice response via telephone, and electronic triaging. It can be used to enhance all types of care: chronic, urgent, transitional, preventive and primary.
Read MoreWe build virtual care into existing health care services using our experience, insights and portfolio of tested and proven clinical protocols and operational workflows. We work with general hospitals, residential health care facilities, diagnostic and treatment centers, mental health clinics, home care providers, and primary care providers. We specialize in Medicare and Medicaid fragile, underserved, Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled populations as well as commercial populations in urban and rural settings. We also offer Virtual Care as a service for insurers, self-insured employers and others with fiscal responsibility for a census of patients.
WHAT WE DOWe design and build virtual care solutions using telemedicine, telehealth and connected health tools and software. Our solutions include the training, marketing, internal communication and enrollment structure necessary for success. We also offer medically led virtual care services such as remote monitoring for chronic illnesses, eConsults and in-home diagnostic virtual visits.
Whether you choose to “buy it” or “build it,” you can use virtual care to:
Read More- Stabilize the Chronically ill: with Chronic Care Management programs coupled with remote patient monitoring (RPM), electronic triaging, and e-consultations
- Reduce Unnecessary ER utilization: with virtual care programs using e-consultations and bringing virtual diagnostic assessments to the residence
- Integrate Medical And Mental Health Care for Individuals with serious mental illness and chronic illnesses
- Extend The Capacity Of Your Existing Practitioners: with technology that enables them to deliver care “anywhere-to-anywhere”
THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH GRANT
Telehealth Associates and the NY State Department of Health Balancing Incentive Grant
In 2014, Telehealth Associates was contracted by Advance Care Alliance, a consortium of 100+ agencies serving the Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled (I/DD) population on Long Island and the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx. We helped the Alliance write, develop, operationalize and manage a DOH Balancing Incentive Program Grant to provide telemedicine enabled urgent care in enrollees’ homes.
The grant’s goal was to increase access to care, improve health outcomes and reduce unnecessary utilization. A 24/7 triaging nurse call center was available to enrollees, as well as access to local nurses who could travel to the residence weekday evenings and weekend days to provide urgent care.
During the final months of the grant, the traveling nurses carried video-enabled telemedicine rollerbags with diagnostic devices. The nurse “telepresented” the individual to a remotely located NP or MD for assessment, diagnosis and recommended treatment.
We saw an 86% reduction in unnecessary ER utilization across 253 telemedicine visits conducted during this time.
The grant program also tested the use of remote monitoring biometric devices (blood pressure monitors, scales, pulse oximeters, glucose readers) for monitoring the health of those with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension . For the most severely systolic hypertensive individuals we achieved 25% reduction in risk of cardiac events and 37% reduction in the risk of stroke. For those monitoring blood glucose, we saw a 48% reduction in the ris k microvascular complications, 56% reduction in risk of peripheral vascular disease, and 21% reduction in the risk of heart failure.
The telehealth solutions provided by this program made an enormous difference for 2000+ enrollees. A survey of enrollees, residence nurses and caregivers showed 99% of them wanted the services to continue post-grant. The 3-year, $6 million grant was extended twice based on successful outcomes. It concluded September 30, 2017. Read the Case Study for more information.
The New York Department of Health funded urgent care grant proved that virtual visits using a diagnostic telemedicine kit can significantly reduce unnecessary visits to the Emergency Room.
