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 largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.