Coronavirus Prompts Hospitals to Fast-Track Telemedicine Projects

Hospital chief information officers, no strangers to emergencies, are putting in place new systems and workflows to get ahead of a growing coronavirus epidemic that threatens to tax limited resources and staff. Their tasks include greenlighting telemedicine projects to reduce expected patient gridlock, developing digital dashboards to speed triage, and testing and retesting systems expected to allow staff to work remotely. Some health systems are fast-tracking planned technology projects such as telemedicine, aimed at screening patients without requiring them to visit a hospital.