Telemedicine refers to the use of video conferencing, phone calls, and texts to provide medical care remotely. It’s estimated that 80% of medical facilities now use some kind of telemedicine technology. At Uniti Health, the new focus is pushing telemedicine in K-12 schools.
In schools, telemedicine can be used to connect students and school staff with healthcare professionals for a variety of purposes, including diagnoses and treatment. Looking to the future of medicine, the increased accessibility of behavioral health, wellness, and concussion treatments is a game-changer.
How Will Telemedicine Work in Schools?
How schools will receive virtual care and what type of care they will receive depends on a school’s budget, current infrastructure, and core needs. Uniti Health works with schools to assess all these factors and give the best recommendations on telemedicine programs. Here are just a few ways that telemedicine may be used:
Virtual Visits
Students and school staff can use telemedicine to connect with healthcare providers for virtual visits. This can be especially useful for individuals who may not have access to healthcare facilities or those who prefer to receive care from the comfort of their own homes and school.
Having this access also gives parents the ability to approve their children’s care needs without leaving work. Students can receive quick answers and recommendations for minor issues or visit teleorthopedics if they get injured in practice. Telemedicine will become the new normal as more schools adopt programs into their systems.
Behavioral Health
Behavioral health care, including treatment for mental health, can be provided through virtual visits. Teletherapy or telebehavioral health can involve therapy sessions, psych evaluations, and medication monitoring. This gives a huge advantage to students who couldn’t readily receive behavioral health care otherwise.
Diagnoses
Some health concerns can be easily diagnosed just by telling a physician what your symptoms are. Getting health professionals to review student/staff symptoms and perform virtual exams reduces the time people have to wait to receive treatment and speeds up recovery time.
Although telemedicine is very accurate and reliable, it is noted for more serious health conditions like allergic reactions and shortness of breath, the patient should be taken to see urgent or emergency services as soon as possible.
Treatment
Depending on the condition being treated, telemedicine can provide ongoing treatment and follow-up care to students and school staff. This can include things like medication management, therapy sessions, diabetes management, and other forms of monitored care.
Students won’t need to take many trips from school to the doctor to home, instead, they can get diagnosed and prescribed treatment in one place before heading back to the comfort of their homes.
Telemedicine Cart Selection
Implementing telemedicine into schools means also looking into how to source these virtual visits efficiently around the school. DATACART™ is here to help with the best telehealth and telemedicine carts in the industry. When it comes to selecting the right telemedicine cart, there are some important factors to consider.
Key Factors for Cart Selection
You don’t need to be a licensed health professional to operate a medical cart. If you can operate a laptop or tablet, you can operate one of our medical carts. That is why we want to highlight some of the best key factors of our carts and give recommendations depending on what you’re looking for.
For in-school use, we recommend DATACART™ Small Form Factor (SFF) carts and smaller telemedicine carts. Here’s why:
Mobility
Schools and hospitals are similar because they host a lot of individuals all at once, usually in multiple different rooms across many floors. Being able to bring a cart around to different classrooms or pass them along easily from child to child is a huge advantage to have because there wouldn’t necessarily need to be a designated room for your telemedicine cart.
Compact Size and Small Footprint
With all the supplies and storage issues at schools, the small footprint and compact size of each medical cart make it hassle-free. SFF carts especially won’t take up a lot of space but all recommended carts are extremely easy to store.
Lightweight
The lightweight design of our carts makes it easy for teachers, nurses, and students alike to move or operate. Even with the added screens, tablets, or monitors, it is easily maneuverable for older children and adults.
Carts to Consider
Depending on what factors you are looking for, there are different carts and accessories to accommodate your needs. As mentioned before, each school’s budget and current infrastructure will be assessed, recommended, and trained on the corresponding telemedicine carts.
For smaller, tablet-focused carts we recommend:
For bigger, more equipment-based carts we recommend:
Additionally, if your school is looking for something more compact and discrete to work alongside the in-school nurses and counselors we recommend checking out our telehealth kits.
You can find a comprehensive list of telehealth/telemedicine carts here and more SFF carts here.
Takeaways
Overall, telehealth is becoming more integrated into K-12 schools than ever before. The benefits of easy and quick access are beneficial to everyone involved. Telemedicine will continue to be an essential part to ensure students and teachers alike receive proper healthcare needs, especially since schools are implementing more technology into their curriculum.
Contact DATACART™ for more information on our telehealth/telemedicine carts and accessories.
