Dr. Sarah Schenck, Internist and Clinical Director of Practice Transformation for Primary Care and Community Medicine at ChristianaCare, spoke on the future of telehealth for primary care, jumpstarted by COVID 19 restrictions. She discussed the system’s gradual adoption of telehealth prior to the pandemic, today all primary care providers have been trained to provide services for patient needs from general health care, medication renewals, mental health, and urgent care conditions, such as sinusitis, back pain, urinary tract infections and common rashes. She discussed the advantages of telehealth for treating chronic health conditions, and disease prevention. As an alternative to emergency room visits for non-emergency care, telehealth delivers considerable cost savings while removing barriers to care for low income patients. She also discussed the security and privacy built into the service. As Director of Community Medicine she described their efforts to reach underserved neighborhood, through outreach in community centers.
