title: Post-disaster Gulf Coast recovery using telehealth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Gulf Coast continues to struggle with service need far outpacing available resources. Since 2005, the Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response (RCC) at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, has supported telehealth solutions designed to meet high service needs (e.g., psychiatry) within primary care and other healthcare organizations. The overall RCC vision is to support autonomous, useful, and sustainable telehealth programs towards mitigating unmet disaster-related needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  To assess Gulf Coast telehealth experiences, we conducted semistructured interviews with both regional key informants and national organizations with Gulf Coast recovery interests. Using qualitative-descriptive analysis, interview transcripts were analyzed to identify shared development themes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-eight key informants were interviewed, representing a 77.6% participation rate among organizations engaged by the RCC. Seven elements critical to telehealth success were identified: Funding, Regulatory, Workflow, Attitudes, Personnel, Technology, and Evaluation. These key informant accounts reveal shared insights with telehealth regarding successes, challenges, and recommendations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The seven elements critical to telehealth success both confirm and organize development principles from a diverse collective of healthcare stakeholders. The structured nature of these insights suggests a generalizable framework upon which other organizations might develop telehealth strategies toward addressing high service needs with limited resources.
authors: Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: Kim
authors: Martha I
authors: MI
authors: Arrieta
authors: Sasha L
authors: SL
authors: Eastburn
authors: Marjorie L
authors: ML
authors: Icenogle
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Slagle
authors: Azizeh H
authors: AH
authors: Nuriddin
authors: Katrina M
authors: KM
authors: Brantley
authors: Rachel D
authors: RD
authors: Foreman
authors: Ayanna V
authors: AV
authors: Buckner
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057188:Workflow