The Architect’s Role in Telehealth Care

Home-centric American culture focused on locality and convenience, combined with a public health emergency, COVID-19, has accelerated the transition to telehealth as part of a regular health care delivery practice. Various health systems have been using telehealth to improve health care access and convenience for patients for several years. Telehealth has potential to reduce costs for providers and patients, alleviate wait times and travel distance, and reduce physical and mental stress. Design for optimal telehealth space for provider visits has been explored heavily. The Veterans Affairs (VA) health system as well as the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) have published standards for telehealth; however, nationally accepted codified standards are yet to be offered. Furthermore, full analysis of space programming in a health care environment is in its infancy for a telehealth-driven care delivery model. Intimate integration of telehealth and artificial intelligence into health care delivery will continue to evolve and, thus, so will the supporting architecture.