Earlier this month, Tapestry Telehealth marked a major milestone when we conducted our 10,000th patient visit since launching last year. It was a rapid achievement that signaled how important telemedicine has become in providing care in rural nursing homes.
To reach that mark, our team performed more than 5,000 patient visits in just the last four months alone. We could not be prouder of our specialists and nurse practitioners who are improving lives by bringing care directly to patients’ bedsides.
For years, many of the direct primary and specialty care services that Tapestry Telehealth providers were only available in urban and larger metropolitan areas, or they required long waits and an even longer drive to access.
But telemedicine is changing all that, and these numbers show how widely accepted it has become. Of course, that acceptance is because telemedicine is helping to drive improved medical outcomes.
In fact, findings of a study reported in August in The American Journal of Managed Care® show that using telemedicine at skilled nursing facilities can reduce hospitalizations and produce savings for Medicare. The study was led by our founder, president and chief medical officer Dr. David Chess.
Tapestry Telehealth quickly is becoming a leader in the field. We now serve skilled nursing facilities in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and more. And we continue to grow.
Tapestry Telehealth kicked off TapestryCare™ by offering facilities a primary care team that includes nurse practitioners who integrate seamlessly with a facility’s attending physicians and staff to help patients on weekdays and/or on scheduled daily rounds.
Today, with our expanded TapestryCare™ program, those same services are available on weeknights, from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., and on weekends, guaranteeing around-the-clock medical and behavioral health coverage --- with all of it being delivered right at the patient’s bedside.
These are impressive numbers, for sure. But behind each number is a patient being helped and a family finding relief that their loved one is getting the best care possible.