MedStar Health Showcases Industry-Leading Telehealth Systems for South Korean Health Officials

The National Health Insurance Service toured MedStar Washington Hospital Center to see advanced technologies in action.

WASHINGTON — MedStar Health recently welcomed officials from South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), who traveled abroad to learn how telehealth is being used in U.S. health systems. The visit comes as the agency considers ways to further integrate telehealth into South Korean health care.

Led by MedStar Health telehealth leaders, the NHIS team toured MedStar Washington Hospital Center and viewed demonstrations of telehealth technologies implemented to streamline services, increase care access, and protect associates. The technology on display included:

MedStar Acute Care Coordinating Center (MAC3) — Tele-triage video units installed in the hospital’s Emergency Department remotely connect providers to patients seeking emergency care for faster initial evaluations.

Biocontainment Unit (BCU) — Telehealth capabilities integrated into the hospital’s BCU allow quarantined patients with highly-infectious diseases to receive care via video connection. This assists in the handling of nationally significant disease cases like Ebola, Marburg, plague, smallpox, and more.

Following the demonstrations, the group discussed how the rapid scaling of telehealth technologies since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in improved connections between patients and providers throughout the region.

“We are honored that NHIS chose MedStar Health as a leading example to learn from in the telehealth space,” said Ethan Booker, MD, FACEP, chief medical officer of Telehealth for MedStar Health and a MedStar Institute for Innovation leadership team member. “We have been developing and implementing telehealth technologies across our system since well before the pandemic. We are proud to show how telehealth is now built into the way we serve patients, improve access to care, and support our teams.”

In the last fiscal year, virtual services supported by MedStar Health’s Telehealth Innovation Center led to 520,000 telehealth encounters. That includes a 37% increase for the MedStar eVisit virtual urgent care platform available via smartphone and PC, which connects patients in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. to care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Telehealth Innovation Center is also the first program to integrate telehealth-enabled personal protection into a BCU. The BCU at MedStar Washington Hospital Center is one of 13 designated as a Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center nationwide, acting as a referral center for FEMA Region 3 including Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.