Telehealth and Emergency Preparedness Toolkit
Seizing Opportunities and Meeting Challenges
This toolkit is intended to give a broad overview of Emergency Preparedness and Telehealth for both patients and providers. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions about this toolkit or with any additional questions.
Emergency Preparedness Basics
What is Emergency Preparedness?
Emergency preparedness involves the planning and implementation of strategies to manage and respond to emergencies, disasters, and public health crises. This includes natural disasters (such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods), pandemics, terrorist attacks, and other unforeseen events that can disrupt normal operations and threaten public safety. Key components of emergency preparedness include risk assessment, resource allocation, communication planning, training and drills, and establishing protocols for rapid response and recovery.
In the United States, one key source of funding for health-related emergency preparedness efforts on the state level is through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement. The PHEP agreement allows for funding to all US states and territories and is a vital part of ensuring our communities are prepared for whatever comes their way.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/readiness/php/phep/index.html
Telehealth and Emergency Preparedness
Telehealth plays a crucial role in supporting emergency preparedness by providing flexible, scalable solutions for managing health crises. During public health emergencies, such as pandemics or natural disasters, telehealth allows healthcare providers to continue delivering care without the risk of exposure to infectious diseases or other hazards. It ensures continuity of care by offering remote consultations, allowing patients to receive medical advice, prescriptions, or follow-up care from the safety of their homes. In mass casualty events, telehealth can help triage patients, prioritize care, and connect on-site responders with specialists for real-time guidance. This ability to connect healthcare providers with patients and each other reduces the burden on overwhelmed healthcare facilities and helps ensure that critical resources are directed to those in greatest need. Additionally, telehealth supports mental health services during emergencies by providing remote counseling for those experiencing trauma or anxiety. By enabling efficient communication, rapid medical response, and continuity of care, telehealth enhances the resilience of healthcare systems and communities during emergencies.
Emergency Preparedness in Rural Communities
A common maxim among emergency responders and planners is that "all disasters beginning and end on the local level" - that is doubly true for rural communities. Rural communities often face unique challenges, including limited access to healthcare facilities, fewer healthcare providers, and longer response times, that can make their responses during public health events and emergencies much harder to plan, implement, and control. Telehealth can serve as a valuable tool to mitigate these barriers, providing connection to other healthcare professionals despite geographic barriers and provide much-needed support to rural communities. Telehealth provides rural residents with access to medical consultations, specialist care, and mental health services, which may not be readily available locally.
Emergency Preparedness, Telehealth, and COVID-19
Redefining Preparedness
Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of public health emergency responses were limited to a single city or, at most, a single state. This impacted the existing plans and procedures in place to ensure communities were prepared for potential public health emergencies - this was one of many reasons why there was an insufficient amount of resources available during the initial stages of the pandemic. Additionally, it was a major factor to why health systems and providers were unprepared to begin heavily using telehealth. In the days since the initial spike of telehealth, there has been a concerted effort at all levels to plan more broadly and, based on the efficacy we saw during the pandemic, to integrate telehealth as a vital resource during future public health emergencies.
Telehealth in Emergency Situations
Telehealth can serve a number of vital purposes during public health emergencies. This can apply both during single-incident events (such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks) as well as ongoing events (such as seasonal flooding or an outbreak of a novel disease). Here are a few examples:
Public Health Surveillance
Contact tracing or public health surveillance was an important tool during the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth platforms can easily be used for public health surveillance, collecting and analyzing data on disease outbreaks and other health threats in real time. Along with tracking public health events, telehealth can also deliver training and education to healthcare providers, emergency responders, and the public, ensuring they are well-informed and prepared to respond to emergencies.
Continuity of Care
During emergencies, telehealth ensures continuity of care by allowing patients to consult with their healthcare providers without leaving their homes. This is particularly important for managing chronic conditions and maintaining regular healthcare services. Prior to COVID-19, this was not seriously considered as a reasonable alternative to in-person care in many cases. However, due to lessons learned during the COVID pandemic, planning for future emergencies now includes telehealth as a practical way to ensure continuity of care.
Remote Triage and Assessment
During more acute public health emergencies, like a hurricane or other natural disaster, telehealth can provide a vital link to acute care providers to assist with remote triage and assessment of those who have been impacted by the event. During an unexpected and large-scale emergency, particularly a mass casualty event, time is of the essence. By working with all available resources, including remote providers, to move quickly, responders can ensure that care is provided in the most effective and efficient way.
Understand the Limits
Telehealth has the potential to be an extremely useful tool when planning for and responding to emergencies. However, there are limits to be aware of. By planning for these limits and considering ways to overcome them, responders can ensure that they are as prepared as they can be to effectively respond to unexpected public health events and emergencies.
Technology Availability and Control
During an emergency, technology may not be available or function as needed. This might include cell towers being down, power being unavailable, or hardware being broken. Plans should consider all of these possibilities and mitigate whenever possible. Hardware should be specifically intended for disaster conditions. Backup communication channels should be established. Backup generators should be available. There is no way to completely prepare for an emergency, but there are certainly steps to take to ensure that you are as prepared as possible.
Looking Forward with Telehealth and Emergency Preparedness
If nothing else, COVID-19 proved that the potential for a threat that has the possibility to rapidly and radically impact our daily lives is always there. With ever-increasing climate change events and the ever-present threat of more novel diseases, there is more reason than ever for communities to try and prepare. Telehealth undoubtedly has a role to play in the future of emergency preparedness. As technology continues to improve and connectivity across the country becomes more and more reliable, there is the expectation that telehealth and remote communications technology in general will play an ever-larger role in our emergency responses.
The best disaster is one that never happens, but the next best one is a disaster that a community has sufficiently prepared for. By leveraging telehealth, that can become a reality more easily than we might expect.
This toolkit is intended to be informational, not to guide care or coverage decisions. For specific questions, we recommend you contact your physician or insurance provider.
Last Updated Sept, 2024