Telehealth for school-based services

Integrating telehealth into your school

Decide which kinds of care your school will provide to students. Some of the most common services include primary care, behavioral health, and diabetes care management. You will have to consider what types of providers will need to be involved to form your telehealth team. These may include:

• Primary care: general practitioners, physician assistants
• Behavioral health: psychiatrists, counselors, social workers
• Diabetes care: endocrinologists

Places you can consider finding a health care provider to provide your telehealth services include local health care offices, regional-based health care systems, or telehealth provider networks.

Behavioral health providers can be harder to find in some communities. Telehealth makes it easier for kids in rural or urban neighborhoods to get the support they need.

Engage staff at the school to help with telehealth services. School administration needs to understand your telehealth program and the benefits it provides for students. They will also need to understand their role in the program. If the school has a nurse, this individual will be a vital team member. Determine which school administration, teachers, guidance counselors, and IT staff need to join your implementation team to ensure the success and sustainability of the program.

When planning your telehealth program, consider the following questions:

• Who will determine the process for managing appointments?
• Who will train your staff in skills to support the telehealth services?
• Who will work with the health care provider to ensure the workflow is smooth during the telehealth appointment?
• Who will provide communication to the students and parents or guardians about the telehealth services?

Prepare a space for the telehealth appointment to take place. You will need to provide a private location and a space with minimal distractions. You may consider communicating with the health care provider to determine some guidelines for the patients while in the space. These may include:

• Not allowing personal electronic devices inside the room without the health care provider’s approval
• Requiring the patient to sit in front of/not hide from the camera

Develop a workflow. You will need to outline the responsibilities of the school, the patients, their parents or guardians, and the health care providers providing care for the following tasks:

• Appointment referral
• Getting and documenting consent
• Registration including health insurance information
• Conducting the appointment
• Appointment follow-up

Before the appointment is confirmed with the patient and the health care provider, you will need to:

• Determine the need for a telehealth appointment
• Obtain parent or guardian consent for telehealth appointments
  • Will a one-time consent be accepted? Or will consent need to be documented for each appointment
• Contact the health care provider to schedule a telehealth appointment

Tip: For more information on obtaining telehealth consent forms please reference this guide from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Once the telehealth appointment is confirmed with the patient and the health care provider, you must:

• Prepare the patient for the appointment
• Be available to assist the patient with their telehealth appointment
• Document the care provided required by the school. Follow up with the parent or guardian on outcomes and next steps