Our region has one of the oldest populations in the nation, many of whom reside in rural areas. Making this commitment to help older adults throughout our region access the care they need through telehealth is a natural step for Dartmouth Health.
Kevin Curtis, MD, Medical Director, Dartmouth Health Connected CareDartmouth Health, a national leader in telehealth, pledged its commitment to advance age-inclusive telehealth principles and guidelines that will define the future virtual care for older adults and their family caregivers. By making this pledge, Dartmouth Health joins a robust list of healthcare leaders who are committed to delivering high-quality, equitable and person-centered telehealth for older adults. Dartmouth Health Connected Care plans to integrate this new age-inclusive framework into its telehealth offerings to best serve older adults.
“Our region has one of the oldest populations in the nation, many of whom reside in rural areas. Making this commitment to help older adults throughout our region access the care they need through telehealth is a natural step for Dartmouth Health,” said Kevin Curtis, MD, Medical Director, Dartmouth Health Connected Care.
Grounded in practicality, the age-inclusive telehealth principles and guidelines were spearheaded and vetted by the West Health Institute and leading experts in geriatrics, telehealth and consumer advocacy. To supercharge this movement, West Health launched a new Center of Excellence For Telehealth and Aging (CE4TA) with the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center and University of Virginia Department of Geriatrics. The Center of Excellence provides free, practical tools, extensive, vetted resources, and a community of like-minded experts to help organizations enhance their telehealth offerings and showcase their achievements in improving telehealth care for older adults.
Older adults often face a confusing, unresponsive and uncoordinated care system and these hurdles were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, federal and state leaders expanded payment for telehealth services. In 2020 alone, Medicare-covered telehealth visits exploded by 63-fold. Leading health systems with telehealth platforms learned that older adults can and will use this type of care, however intentional human-centered design efforts are vital to ensure all customer segments – particularly older adults with complex care needs – can meaningfully use telehealth going forward.
The Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth is honored to be recognized for its commitment to shaping the future of age-inclusive telehealth to meet the needs, values and preferences of older adult and family caregivers of today and tomorrow. This is one more way Dartmouth Health is achieving its mission to improve access to care to residents of northern New England.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire's only academic health system and the state's largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 56 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the state’s only children’s hospital, and multiple clinic locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene and New London, NH, and Bennington and Windsor, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.