HHH: Library Telehealth Visits
Revisited
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| #HealthLiteracy |
In May 2019, I highlighted the topic of
telehealth for my Henry’s High-Tech Highlights blog series. I think it’s high
time we take another look. Before this year, telehealth was a fairly new
technology that only a handful of folks were thinking about and exploring. With
the pandemic, it’s risen to the forefront of people’s minds, becoming more
relevant than ever. Suddenly we need telehealth implemented everywhere, on a
massive scale, as communities, especially rural ones, are facing a worsening
health crisis. Many lack local healthcare facilities to visit and the necessary
Internet connectivity to make virtual doctor visits work. Libraries around the
country are poised to be the perfect partners in these efforts to bring this
critical need to the community, and we just happen to have a pioneer right here
in Texas leading the charge.
Today’s highlight:
Telehealth at the library
The Facts
First off, why do folks need telehealth
access, especially now?
🗹 Rural hospitals have been closing at a
catastrophic rate.
🗹 Many people in rural areas are located
far from any hospitals.
🗹 There’s also a lack of transportation
options (no public transit) for folks to physically travel to the hospital.
🗹 Even when transportation is available,
patients are often reluctant to travel outside of their area.
🗹 And most significantly, there is
insufficient broadband access, a requirement for telehealth, in many residents’
homes.
Additionally, many of retirement age
buy homes in rural areas to live, but when they find they need more healthcare,
they end up selling their homes and returning to the cities due to the lack of
access. Adding telehealth services to libraries means these seniors could
receive the healthcare they need, thus allowing them to stay, age in place, and
have the quality of life they desire. Libraries have the opportunity to be
transformative, helping to maintain the vitality of their communities.
Why are libraries the
perfect telehealth partners?
➧ It’s a place already in communities to
serve people’s needs that people trust.
➧ It has friendly, helpful staff who
respect privacy and are pros at teaching digital literacy skills.
➧ It often has free high speed Internet,
faster than many might get at home. READ
MORE ➤➤
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