When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Nemours Children’s Health System was eager to help out through its CareConnect virtual care platform. All it needed was the green light for Nemours providers, who aren’t licensed in Texas, to practice medicine in the state. Then Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency.

“Once that [barrier] was lifted, it basically took five minutes to flip a switch on our technology platform to where we could have our providers available in the state of Texas,” says Carey Officer, administrator of telehealth for Nemours CareConnect.

In the midst of torrential flooding and winds that destroyed homes and displaced thousands of people along Texas’ Gulf Coast and parts of Florida during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, telehealth was a lifeline for people needing nonemergency care.

Continue reading at: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/telehealth-fills-void-when-weather-emergencies-disrupt-normal-provider-pati-1/508252/