Upcoming Event
Telehealth Expansion and Scaling: Tough Challenges
Description:
SIU School of Medicine’s traditional site-based telehealth program had served patients in central and southern Illinois pre-pandemic, but once the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) began, SIU School of Medicine’s program needed to expand to see patients at home. Despite the many challenges that come with expanding a telehealth program, SIU School of Medicine providers started seeing patients at home and tried to limit the impact of the PHE on patient care as much as possible.
Objectives
- Understand the challenges of expanding and scaling a traditional site-based telehealth program to include a telehealth to the home program.
- Learn about the steps taken and processes put in place to meet patient needs during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
- Learn about the changes made to care delivery during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Speaker:
Laura Hepp Kessel, MSW, is the Executive Director of Telehealth Services for the SIU School of Medicine. In her role with SIU, Laura is responsible for managing SIU’s telehealth activities. Laura represents SIU as a member of the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council (GRAC) and is the immediate past chair of Rural Partners (the state’s rural development council). In addition, Laura is involved in her community by serving on the Fulton County Board of Health and has been elected to the Fulton County Board. In her county board role, Laura serves on the finance and insurance committee, executive committee, negotiations committee, and is the chair of the community development, zoning and 200th anniversary committee. She previously worked at the Illinois State Board of Education, for Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, and as a community organizer in southern Illinois. Laura earned a Master Degree in Social Work from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis as well as a Bachelor Degree of Science in Social Work from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale.