Why Telehealth and Virtual Healthcare Systems are More Important in the Age of COVID
Introduction

This firm can add value to a healthcare system like the VA or DoD healthcare facilities by updating them and bringing them into line with 21st century technologies that facilitate virtual healthcare delivery. Telehealth has been in existence for decades, but it is only now that healthcare organizations are beginning to realize the need for telehealth systems. The world of COVID 19 has changed the way partners, patients and healthcare providers think about healthcare delivery. This paper will describe the effect of COVID 19 on virtual healthcare delivery and show why this firm can assist the VA in upgrading its systems.

COVID 19

The coronavirus panic that began in 2019 in China, quickly overtook the West and led to a global economic lockdown from March 2020 onward. Restaurants, movie theaters, schools, churches, parks, playgrounds—all closed to prevent the spread of the virus and reduce the risk of COVID 19 infection. Hospitals and healthcare facilities also had to reduce operations, delaying non-essential surgeries and procedures for months while only taking the most serious cases. As a result, many patients were left without doctors and nurses, unable to see a healthcare provider.

The novel coronavirus responsible for infecting people with the COVID 19 disease has been considered highly infectious and dangerous for certain individuals (particularly the elderly). It represents a new form of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS), which is essentially a lung issue. Breathing in the virus or spreading it around to others through person-to-person contact has been seen as a major risk, which is why social distancing efforts have been put into place in most countries (BMJ, 2020). Except in Sweden where the government allowed people to go about their business as usual, nearly every nation in the West has implemented some form of social distancing protocol and mask-wearing policy to prevent the spread of the virus. However, understanding the disease is complicated, as autopsy have shown that people with pre-existing conditions are most at risk, and the biggest risk factor among pre-existing conditions are coronary heart disease and asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which put individuals at higher risk of death (Hansen, 2020).

The Risk for Healthcare Settings

Leaders in the healthcare industry have issued warnings that health care facilities could potentially become hot spots for infection. With too many patients and visitors and workers coming into contact with one another, the fear of infection rates rising has been addressed by governors, mayors and members of the President’s health team tasked with overseeing the management of the pandemic. Super spreaders, identified as younger individuals who show no symptoms of the virus yet are capable of spreading it more vulnerable populations, have been especially feared. Hospitals and health care facilities have thus attempted to keep the flow of traffic to a minimum. By reducing the number of people coming in the doors, these settings have helped to prevent the spread of COVID 19. However, they have also reduced the number of patients who can see their care providers.

Since it is still unclear exactly how the virus spreads from person to person, i.e., whether transmission occurs...…how to use virtual healthcare delivery systems. Installation can be completed quickly within a matter of days. Instruments can be tested immediately, and staff can be trained on these systems over the course of 2 weeks. Maintaining these instruments is relatively non-intrusive, and most hospitals and healthcare facilities have in-house IT teams that could easily manage these systems themselves. However, this firm does offer maintenance subscriptions for an annual price.

This firm is dedicated to giving top of the line delivery and ensuring that healthcare providers are safe and free from risk. At the same time it recognizes that patients need help with understanding their symptoms. Virtual healthcare delivery ensures that patients and doctors can come together using the Internet, have a discussion, engage in monitoring, and use the technology of today to treat the issues that healthcare patients have.

Conclusion

To counter the risk posed by COVID 19, it is recommended that the healthcare system of the VA be updated to allow for an integrated virtual healthcare delivery package. This firm can easily and quickly install an affordable virtual healthcare delivery system. The firm will not only install it but will also train staff on how to use with a 2 week virtual course. It will also test and maintain the equipment to ensure that it is working appropriately. When it comes to health, no company is more engaged on the front lines than ours. We bring the best of digital technology that the 21st century has to offer to the health care workers of today. The solution to the coronavirus scare is virtual healthcare delivery.