Anticipated and Experienced Barriers to Telehealth in Congregate Care Facilities Across Virginia

The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) raised important questions of how best to apply telehealth to enable delivery of timely, high-quality health care to medically vulnerable individuals who reside in long-term care facilities. Looking back to the PHE, there have been multiple studies that demonstrate how telehealth can be a tool to improve patient outcomes, for COVID-19 infection, as well as for many other medical conditions.1-5 Telehealth has been shown to decrease unnecessary transfers and decrease overall medical costs.