A Telehealth Initiative at Hopebridge, LLC: A Doctoral Capstone Project

Abstract

The spread in telehealth utilization has been astonishing, with the United States Center for Disease Control (2020) reporting 154% growth in just one years’ time. Though telehealth practice itself has grown, available resources have not emerged at a suitable rate to meet the training needs that exist (Camden & Silva, 2021). With the sudden onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, telehealth was implemented by therapists in many healthcare settings, most of whom are accustomed to offering in-person services only. Likewise, Hopebridge, LLC implemented telehealth to allow continued provision of medically necessary therapy services for children with autism spectrum disorder. Current trends indicate that not only has telehealth been useful during the crisis of Covid-19, but it may, in fact be here to stay (Licurse et al., 2020). Hopebridge leaders partnered with an occupational therapy doctoral capstone student to contribute to an organizational telehealth initiative. The ultimate purpose of the project was to assist in efforts to create long-term telehealth sustainability and acceptability. Following in-depth processes to determine site needs, a gap in therapist preparation for telehealth was identified. The capstone project was designed to increase therapist competence and self-efficacy when approaching telehealth using a targeted virtual webinar series. The following describes the full capstone process and efforts made to enhance telehealth services provided at Hopebridge.