Patients who are new to telehealth can benefit from one-on-one digital support from health centers. Staff at Yakima Neighborhood Health Services (YNHS) created a digital literacy program to help meet their patients’ needs when using telehealth.
With support from HRSA’s Quality Improvement Fund-Optimizing Virtual Care award, community health workers at YNHS meet with patients to help them set up smart phones, use remote patient monitoring, and make telehealth appointments.
Staff developed a digital literacy scale to offer better one-on-one support. The scale relies on a questionnaire that measures a patient’s digital abilities. Based on their answers, patients receive a rating on a scale of 1-5. The ratings appear on electronic health records. Staff use the ratings to adjust support services to a patient’s skills. For example, if a patient has a moderate digital literacy rating, staff may help them with mobile scheduling and protection of personal information.
The center recently presented the digital literacy scale at the Western Forum for Migrant and Community Health, and participants were eager to learn more. “Everybody was asking if we would give them the [digital literacy scale] so that they could implement something like that in their practice as well,” said Chris Newman, Chief Operating Officer at YNHS.
The center piloted a program with homebound patients and those living in rural areas. The success of their program required more staff. So, the center filed a change in scope with the state Medicaid agency to include community health workers as part of their costs. This led to increased Prospective Payment System rates which are helping to sustain their telehealth programs. The increase allowed the center to hire more community health workers and expand the program to reach special populations like people experiencing homelessness and migrant workers.
YNHS’s telehealth innovations piqued the interest of the wider health center community. Building on the center’s successful telehealth program, YNHS partnered with Community Health Network of Washington to set up a toll-free hotline called “Link to Care WA” to increase access to health technology.
Neighborhood Health serves more than 23,000 patients at 10 sites in Central Washington.