Legal Considerations for Remote Healthcare Work

• Author: Christina M. Jordan
• Pages: 2-3

Published in Litigation News Volume 45, Number 4, Summer 20 20. © 2020 by the Ameri can Bar Association. Re produced with per mission. All rights re served. This info rmation or any porti on thereof may not be c opied or disseminated in any

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ngoing safety pre cautions due to the COVI D-

19 pandemic have require d millions of people ,

regardless of thei r profession, to work from

home. The pandemic h as resulted in a turn

toward technology to help people work from

home effectively. Workers in the medica l eld face unique

challenges when pe rforming healt hcare work remotely.

While healt hcare providers expand efforts to provide ca re

for a growing patient popul ation in view of the COV ID-19

pandemic, telehea lth and telemedicine services h ave become

more attractive to bot h patients and healthc are providers.

Expanded availability of services allows individuals to limit

their exposu re to COVID-19 by receiv ing care outside of

healthcare faci lities. Remote use of healthcare tools a lso

reduces the number of in -person patient visits that could

otherwise over whelm hospital care units and medic al equip-

ment supply chains. Hea lthcare providers’ and pat ients’

homes have become the doc tor’s ofce waiting room , the

examination roo m, and the emergenc y room.

The telecommun ication applications used for providing

remote healthcar e services provide a convenient way for per-

sonal two-way com munication. Healthc are providers should

be mindfu l of choosing an application that is user friend ly,

choosing a private location i n the home, and testing equip-

ment in advance of commun icating with patients. There are

small steps hea lthcare providers can take to impress upon

their patients th at the nature of the discussion is sim ilar to

what it would have been if it was in per son, and demonstrate

professionalism, re spect, and privacy of the discus sion.

By Christina M. Jo rdan, Litigation N ews Associate Editor

Legal Considerations for Remote

Healthcare Work

As telehealth and tel emedicine ser vices become more

widely used, there l ikely will be increased access to , and

electronic transm ission of, condential health information.

Attorneys should be come familiar with legal iss ues surround-

ing remote healthc are work, including pot ential measure s for

mitigating risk a nd protecting devices and data.

What Are Telemedicine and Telehealth?

Telemedicine refers to tradition al clinical care, like d iagnos-

ing and monitoring pat ients, performed remotely. Telehealth

is slightly broader tha n telemedicine and can include serv ices

such as patient education, wel lness promotion, and monitor-

ing of wearable devices . There are four main categories of

telehealth: (1) live two-way commun ication with a healt hcare

provider using audiov isual telecommunication s technology;

(2) transmission of dig ital images, su ch as x-rays, through a

secure elect ronic communications system; (3) remote patient

monitoring of vital st atistics by clinicians; a nd (4) mobile

health using sma rtphone and wearable device technolog y,

such as cameras, m icrophones, sensors, and applications.

Many remote healthc are workers are turning to new

technologies th at help facilitate telehealt h services, such as

videoconference s, data sharing, and project ma nagement.

Healthcare workers shou ld be mindful of whether technolog y

has been developed spe cically for handling protec ted health

information. It is i mportant that technology used for te le-

medicine and telehe alth support Health Insuranc e Portability

and Accountabil ity Act (HI PAA) compliance and en sure that

health inform ation is properly protected.

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