As telemedicine becomes an increasingly important part of how hospitals deliver specialty care, quality cannot exist in a separate virtual lane. Integrated telemedicine operates within the same clinical workflows, safety processes, and expectations for accountability as the rest of the hospital and on-site teams.
The same questions and metrics apply. How are safety events reviewed? Where does documentation live? How are outcomes measured? What happens when a workflow breaks down? How does the specialty program support the hospital’s broader clinical goals?
Access TeleCare works with hospital partners to integrate virtual specialty care into existing clinical and quality structures. That can include professional practice evaluations, credentialing by proxy, accreditation support, participation in hospital and medical staff committees, clinical education, and program-specific performance measurement.
Set the Standard, Then Keep Raising It
Access TeleCare became the first telemedicine organization to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® in 2006 and has maintained Joint Commission accreditation since.
Access TeleCare also has been certified as a Patient Safety Organization by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since 2021. Through that structure, Access TeleCare and its hospital partners participate in patient safety event review, root cause analyses, and collaborative safe tables to identify opportunities for improvement.
As Patricia D. Griffin, RN, FACHE, vice president of quality and safety at Access TeleCare, has said, “Patient safety in telemedicine has to be active, structured, and embedded in the way care is delivered.”
Behind that work is a dedicated Quality and Safety team responsible for helping turn standards into everyday practice. The team works across clinical operations and with hospital partners to monitor performance, review patient safety events, identify trends, support accreditation and regulatory requirements, and help translate findings into meaningful improvements in care. Their role is to build the processes, feedback loops, and accountability that allow Access TeleCare and its partners to continually strengthen how care is delivered.
Quality Is a Shared Responsibility
Healthcare Quality Week recognizes the professionals at Access TeleCare and our clinical partners who make continuous quality improvement part of everyday healthcare.
