Purchase, New York-based Teladoc is making moves in the telehealth space.
Jefferson Health in Philadelphia recently went live on Teladoc’s telehealth platform.
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What prompted Jefferson Health to handpick Teladoc as opposed to another vendor? “Many of the other vendors were not designed the way Teladoc was,” Dr. Judd Hollander, the associate dean for strategic health initiatives at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, told MedCity in a phone interview. Instead, it was designed with health systems in mind, he pointed out. “The advantage is they have a platform that does what we need to do,” Hollander said.
Dr. Alan Roga, president of Teladoc’s provider market, echoed that sentiment. “We understand the unique needs of hospitals and health systems and have developed a purpose-built telehealth solution specifically for them,” he said in a statement.
The Teladoc system is now part of Jefferson Health’s existing telehealth program, JeffConnect. But the new go-live doesn’t mean JeffConnect has disintegrated.
“JeffConnect still exists. It’s the brand of our program,” Hollander said. “We’ve changed nothing about JeffConnect. We’ve added the Teladoc platform, which is branded as JeffConnect, to that.”
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JeffConnect, which includes inpatient care, outpatient care and transitions in care, enables patients to connect with physicians via phone, computer or tablet. Using JeffConnect, patients can see a physician in a variety of different ways. They can connect with their physicians 24/7 through on-demand visits. Patients can also schedule video visits or use the remote second opinion option to get additional thoughts on their care.
Whereas other hospitals and health systems outsource some of their telehealth visits to other providers, Jefferson Health does not. That’s what sets JeffConnect apart — patients always see a Jefferson Health physician, Hollander said. “That’s really unique about JeffConnect,” he said. “We believe our patients want to know that when you call Jefferson, you get Jefferson. We’re able to do that on this platform.”
And JeffConnect’s services aren’t limited to a certain physician specialty. “If you have an appointment, you can have it with every type of specialty at Jefferson,” Hollander said.
Though the price of a JeffConnect visit varies depending on one’s insurer, an on-demand visit currently costs $49.
Working with Teladoc and improving its JeffConnect platform aren’t the only things Jefferson Health is doing in the telehealth field. For one, it’s developing the National Academic Center for Telehealth, a hub focused on the intersection of technology and healthcare. Jefferson Health is also training medical students and residents in telehealth.
Photo: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, Getty Images
