BOISE, Idaho — Health care systems across the Gem State are still under crisis standards of care. Now, to help ease the burden, St. Luke’s Health System is now offering more virtual services.
Virtual services aren’t new to St. Luke’s, but now the health care system added urgent care services, remote patient management and virtual services for patients in the hospital.
Officials think these services will help cut back on the traffic of patients entering health care facilities.
“With the most recent surge, our emergency rooms were overwhelmed so we quickly deployed telehealth on demand which is an enhancement of what we were previously doing," said Associate Medical Provider for Primary Care Dr. Terry Ribbens.
In 2021, St. Luke’s has conducted 300,000 telehealth visits. The virtual services do not require patients to schedule an appointment and are available seven days a week.
People with sinus issues, sore throats or rashes can use this service.
After COVID-19 and chronic disease patients are released from the hospital, patients can use the new remote patient management tool, also known as RPM, in the recovery process. RPM patients are provided with a kit that includes a blood pressure cuff, scale and a tablet to easily communicate with providers.
In addition to the new enhancements, St. Luke’s also provides virtual care inside hospitals to help support bedside care teams.
Providers use pods to ensure patients have a private and secure virtual experience. St. Luke’s is also looking for ways to better assist health care providers.
“As a virtual nurse you are not walking out of that room together, but you’re hitting a button that says disconnect and you find yourself alone in a chair navigating those emotions. So, we have had to put a lot of attention on how to support our virtual staff," said Senior Director of Telehealth Services Krista Stadler.
St. Alphonsus officials said they have offered telehealth services for many years and saw an increase in patients at the start of the pandemic.
Primary Health Medical Group has offered this service for a year now but has recently slowed down.
“This last delta variant spike, we’ve seen a huge number of patients coming into our clinics. We have not seen an increase in utilizations of telehealth which is surprising," said Dr. Hamblin, Primary Health’s urgent care director.
Officials from all three facilities told KTVB that patients prefer in-person visits which is why they are seeing fewer virtual patients. They all encouraged the community to take advantage of this program.
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