Home Telemedicine
BDC Home Telemedicine
The Barbara Davis Center offers home telemedicine to patients in Colorado and Wyoming for a variety of appointments, including routine check-ups, insulin pump classes, and meetings with our dieticians. These virtual visits allow you to meet with your healthcare provider from the comfort and conveneince of you own home.
We offer telemedicine appointments to our established patients. Different providers have varying telemedicine schedules. Some providers do not have have any telemedicine slots routinely available but may be able to accomodate a telemedicine visit on request. If you have a preferred provider, please contact them directly via MyChart.
If interested in a home telemedicine appointment, speak with your provider or call the BDC schedulers.
At this time, it is not possible to schedule a telemedicine visit through MyChart. Any visit scheduled through MyChart will be a in-person clinic visit by default.
Scheduling
To schedule a home telemedicine appointment: Call (303) 724-2323 or contact your provider directly via MyChart.
Benefits of Home-Telemedicine
We understand that life can be busy and that school, work, sports, and friends can often get in the way of good diabetes care. With home-telemedicine, you can see your BDC provider from the comfort and convenence of your home, office, or school, saving time and gas money while still keeping up with your or your child's diabetes care.
The American Diabetes Association recommends quartely visits for all children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and multiple studies have linked adherence with these recommendations with improved A1c and long-term outcomes. Home-telemedicine can make it easier to meet this standard, ensuring you are recieving dosing adjustments, tracking trends, and working with your care team to combat the obstacles that T1d can create.
In addition to routine follow-ups, we offer pump classes, dietician services, and education with our nurse educators over telemedicine.
Technology and Security
For home-telemedicine, we use Zoom, provided by the Univeristy of Colorado (CU). The university's encryption ensures compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and an Business Associate Agreement (BAA) between CU and Zoom ensures protection of personal health information (PHI) while unlocking a full suite of Zoom's features for use.
Both the BDC and our partners take your privacy seriously and adhere to all state and federal regulations regarding healthcare privacy and security.
To learn more about the the security features and HIPAA compliance of the Zoom software, click here.
What to Expect
While we strive to ensure that the care you recieve over telemedicine is as comparable to in-person care as possible, there are some unique aspects to seeing your doctor over video-conference.
- After scheduling, you will receive a Zoom link for your appointment via email. This link is unique to your current appointment and should not be shared with anyone. Don't worry if you misplace this link, we will resend it closer to your appointment.
- Closer to your appointment, typically two business days prior, you will receive some additional information regarding uploading and submitting the consent form for home telemedicine. If your appointment is a routine follow up, you will be expected to upload your devices at home prior to your appointment. If you have any questions or need help uploading, we are always available to walk you though the steps or help troubleshoot.
- Finally, we do not routinely send out A1c or lab orders prior to home telemedicine appointments, relying instead on time-in-range. Time-in-range measurements can offer you an approximation of what your A1c would be based on your past BG data while also providing a better idea of your control generally, including how often you have high and low glucose levels. If you would like an A1c however, your provider can easily send you lab orders to take to your local diagnostic lab. Simply reach out to your provider prior to your appointment or ask at your appointment.
What We Expect
While we do our best to ensure you recieve the best care possible over telemedicine, your diabetes care is a collaborative effort. We simply ask that you come prepared to your appointment and treat your home-telemedicine appointment the same way you would treat an in-clinic appointment.
- Be sure you are in an area that is private and without too much ambient noise.
- Make sure you have a computer or smartphone with a camera and microphone.
- Make sure you have a reliable internet connection that is fast enough to handle a videoconference.
- If the appointment is for your child, make sure that your child is present for the appointment. We cannot see your child if we cannot see your child. It is okay if you are joining from separate locations (i.e. your child is at school and you are at work) so long as you are all present. On a similar note, if the patient is under 18, a parent or guardian must be present on Zoom with the patient.
- Please don't join your appointment while driving... or biking, or skiing. Make sure you are in a safe spot where you can be present and attentive.
Remember, the appointment is for you and we want it to be a beneficial use of your time. If for whatever reason you need to reshedule or would prefer to be seen in person, just let us know and we will be happy to work with you to reschedule.