Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CT

Speaker:
Darlene Evans, MSN, RN, CPHQ, NEA-BC with Nash Healthcare Consulting

Cost: $195 to NHA members (per hospital, no charge for additional lines, recordings available up to 60 days after the webinar)

Course Curriculum
Although telemedicine services have been approved for payment by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in its dramatically expanded use. It is anticipated that the telemedicine boom will outlive the pandemic, and CMS has made many changes to telemedicine standards and regulations. Every acute hospital and critical access hospital offering telemedicine should ensure compliance.
This program will discuss the most problematic standards in the telemedicine interpretive guidelines. The most frequently cited deficiency standard is the hospital’s failure to have the required sections in the contract for telemedicine services. This webinar will cover what provisions should be in the telemedicine contract.
This webinar will also review the CMS conditions of participation (CoP) and interpretive guidelines for all hospitals regarding their telemedicine standards. The regulations cover the credentialing and privileging process for physicians and practitioners providing telemedicine services.

Intended Audience:
Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, Compliance Officer, Emergency Department Personnel, Joint Commission Coordinator, Medical Records, Quality Improvement personnel, Risk Manager, Legal Counsel.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:
• Discuss that there are both regulations and CMS interpretive guidelines that are now part of the hospital CoPs on telemedicine credentialing.
• Recall that CMS includes a mechanism for all hospitals to use proxy credentialing with a Medicare-certified hospitals or other telemedicine entities.
• Describe that the hospital must have a written agreement that specifies the responsibilities of the distant-site hospital to meet the required credentialing requirements.
• Recite that Joint Commission has standards on telemedicine in the leadership chapter.

Speaker Bio:
Darlene Evans is a healthcare quality leader with more than 25 years of experience, specializing in clinical and regulatory operations management, accreditation readiness and response, staff training, and business development. With her expertise in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Joint Commission, and Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program standards and her commitment to education and collaboration, Darlene has a proven track record of helping clients identify opportunities for improvement and achieve sustainable, long-term results. She has also helped lead organizations through projects in areas such as operational effectiveness, infrastructure, staffing and productivity, fiscal stewardship, leadership development, and care delivery.
Darlene was Senior Manager of Clinical Operations, Quality, Safety, and Performance Improvement with Quorum Health Resources. In this role, she provided consultative services to 150 client hospitals, including accreditation, quality, and life safety and environment of care assessments, and the implementation of operational process improvement tools and best practices, as well as other specialty patient quality and safety initiatives.
Previously, Darlene worked with the Joint Commission International as a hospital and ambulatory care accreditation surveyor for healthcare organizations in Turkey, India, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and China. In addition to her consulting and surveyor experience, Darlene has served in full-time leadership roles including Chief Nursing Officer, Vice President of Patient Care Services, Assistant Vice President of Nursing Services, and Director of Quality Management and Education.
Darlene earned her Master’s Degree and Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from Troy State University in Troy, AL. She has also taken courses in business and management and is Lean Six Sigma certified. Darlene is a Registered Nurse, a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the National Association for Healthcare Quality.