Last week I toured Lac qui Parle County in Western Minnesota. One of my jobs was to interview local businesses for the LqP Economic Development Authority. I was delighted when interviewing Kathy Johnson at Johnson Memorial Health Services when she started talking about the importance of e-services to her patients. I’m happy to share the interview below with permission for Kathy and the LqP EDA. The e-services discussion starts about halfway through the video.

She mentions e-service, such as e-emergency services, e-consults and e-pharmacy backup for 24 hours service. The reason for moving to e-services is to help patients avoid the all-day trip when they see a specialist. The commute is difficult for folks. It usually means time off work either for the patient and/or for a loved one who might escort the patient.

Off camera we talked about the difficulty with funding e-services through insurance companies. When a patients comes in for e-services they are assisted by professional staff but the cost of that time is barely covered in reimbursement. We also talked about the possibilities of combining home health visits with remote home health visits to keep people engaged with their community.