Disasters can quickly overwhelm a healthcare system’s capacity and exacerbate existing gaps in access to specialty care. The Region 1 RDHRS has developed a disaster telehealth system. This presentation will highlight how a proof of concept developed into a prototype system, and how it is becoming operational. We will elaborate on the barriers of implementing a telehealth system to provide access to acute consultation with disaster-relevant specialists, and the steps the Region 1 RDHRS is taking to develop solutions.

An RDHRS is a tiered system across states and regions created to deliver a more coherent and comprehensive response to health security threats. A key RDHRS capability is providing disaster telehealth services to target gaps in healthcare coverage, allowing providers to access disaster-relevant clinical expertise in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic no-notice event.

The Region 1 RDHRS disaster telehealth system can rapidly mobilize a national pool of volunteer specialists to support overwhelmed local providers at the point of care. This system is flexible to support a range of disasters and easy to navigate without prior training. The system is device-agnostic and functions on existing telecommunication systems without requiring new hardware/software installation.

Operationalizing a telehealth system to deliver acute episodic unscheduled care across state lines is fraught with challenges. We collaborated with various subject matter experts to develop solutions that allow for rapid volunteer verification, training, and mobilization. Despite advances driven by COVID-19, barriers related to license portability, liability protection, and credentialing of volunteer specialists across state lines remain complex. We are developing disaster waivers and template documents that can be rapidly implemented via executive action at state and regional levels.

The Region 1 RDHRS team is collaborating with the other pilot sites within the RDHRS program to develop a unified national disaster telehealth response based on this model.