When rural hospitals want to set up specialty services for their patients, say telestroke or tele-ICU, how do they go about finding a remote service provider? Online searches yield a lot of ads, but how do you sift through that information to find an appropriate partner?
That is why the Arizona Telemedicine Program established the national, online Telemedicine & Telehealth Service Provider Directory (SPD) – to provide a resource for decision-makers from organizations like hospitals, clinics, private practices, schools, correctional institutions, and others. The SPD makes it easy for you to find the tele-services you need. The focus is on companies that provide clinical services for interacting with patients from a distance—not on platforms, apps, technology, telecom, consultants or back-office services.
SPD is searchable by state or states where you need services, by services you’re looking for, by the type of customer you are, and by any ancillary patient services you may need. Once you’ve chosen your search criteria, the directory does your research for you. You’ll see a list of service provider dashboards that you can quickly compare, saving you time. The SPD does not rank or endorse any of the provider companies, but we do carefully vet them for current information and verify the nature of their services.
“The SPD has become my go-to resource for the Southwest Telehealth Resource Center, when I receive inquiries about who can provide services when an organization has no internal or locally available providers,” says Elizabeth A. Krupinski, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair for research, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, at Emory University.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: it’s easy to use, provides lots of options, and there have been numerous partnerships formed through the SPD. Without this free resource, since the SWTRC cannot recommend one company over another, I would have to tell our clients to go search the web, which simply is not the answer they are looking for.”
“There is no better resource for finding a telehealth service provider that the SPD!”
Zoi Hills, program manager with the Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center, in Minneapolis, is just as equally enthusiastic about the SPD.
“I use it all the time. It’s a very useful tool,” she said, noting that she had four calls in one week, from people looking for assistance. With the SPD, “Everyone’s a winner” she said.
Not surprisingly, Dr. Krupinski and Ms. Hills are not alone. The most recent statistics on the SPD show that since 2014, when the directory started, there has been a 46 percent increase in repeat and one-time visits to the directory. For unique pages, visits have increased 49 percent, indicating that people are browsing more pages during a visit.
A new feature of the Service Provider Directory is an overview video. The short 2-minute video will help you understand the usefulness of this free on-line service, and hopefully help you advance your telehealth partnerships.
