One of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic era is the mass acceptance of telemedicine as a vital part of healthcare delivery, as it quickly transformed from a luxury service to a necessity for the last four years.
But with the increased use of telemedicine comes an increase of exposure to malpractice lawsuits, especially with minimum precedence being established in the field.
So how do you minimize your exposure to malpractice lawsuits when delivering telemedicine?
Here are some industry best practices:
Standardize your communications processes
Developing a specific communications process for telemedicine patients and internal staff will help proactively identify any errors, inconsistencies or misinformation that could occur. Use simple three-, five- or 10-step processes to ease the learning curve. Input these workflows into your office software management programs as well as having hard copies onsite for easy access when needed.
Reach out to regulators
In the whirlwind four years since the pandemic era began, both state and federal regulators around medical malpractice have been modified. Begin with local state regulators to see what may have changed, then review federal regulations to identify any changes that may be relevant for your practice.
Manage your risk
It may seem time-consuming at the beginning but adding administrative details like noting why the telemedicine delivery was more efficient and listing alternative resources that were offered to the patient benefit the practice by showing that comprehensive health care delivery was provided, along with open-ended resources.
Detailed record keeping is even more important with telemedicine patients and keeping in contact with them will require a new set of protocols compared to traditional in-person patients.
Bottleneck of cases?
Across the medical and legal industries, it is a popular belief that the delivery of telemedicine during the two years of the pandemic will eventually lead to a flood of cases once the bottleneck is unsealed.
Supporters of this theory proclaim that this trend will be seen this year or in 2025.
To stay in compliance and minimize risk in the new telemedicine era, providers must realize the entirely new chapter of healthcare delivery that has started and adjust accordingly without bias to previous processes and protocols.
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