@article {Joshi637, author = {Aditi U. Joshi and Resa E Lewiss}, title = {Telehealth in the time of COVID-19}, volume = {37}, number = {10}, pages = {637--638}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1136/emermed-2020-209846}, publisher = {British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine}, abstract = {Telehealth or using technology for a remote medical encounter has become an efficient solution for safe patient care during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or COVID-19 pandemic. This medium allows patient immediate healthcare access without the need for an in-person visit. We designed a time-sensitive, practical, effective and innovative scale-up of telehealth services as a response to the demand for COVID-19 evaluation and testing. As more patients made appointments through the institution{\textquoteright}s telehealth programme, we increased the number of clinicians available. JeffConnect, the acute care telehealth programme, was expanded to increase staffing from a standing staff of 37{\textendash}187 doctors within 72 hours. Telehealth care clinicians primarily trained in emergency medicine, internal medicine and family medicine followed a patient decision pathway to risk stratify patients into three groups: home quarantine no testing, home quarantine with outpatient COVID-19 testing and referral for in-person evaluation in the ED, for symptomatic and potentially unstable patients.}, issn = {1472-0205}, URL = {https://emj.bmj.com/content/37/10/637}, eprint = {https://emj.bmj.com/content/37/10/637.full.pdf}, journal = {Emergency Medicine Journal} }