A Tampa Bay health system is expanding its kiosk-based telehealth program. But this time the location isn’t a pharmacy inside a big grocery store.

Instead, BayCare Health System, which operates 15 hospitals in and around Tampa Bay, Fla., is deploying its latest telehealth kiosk in a YMCA near its flagship hospital campus.

In March 2017, BayCare began rolling out its branded telehealth sites to a series of Publix Supermarket Inc. stores in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties in Florida. BayCare plans to operate health screening stations at all 115 Publix pharmacies in the four-county area while concurrently Publix will operate retail pharmacies at five BayCare hospitals.

So far about a dozen telehealth-enabled kiosks have been deployed in Publix stores and BayCare plans to end the year with an installation base of about 26 kiosks, says BayCare senior vice president for ambulatory services Jim Cote. But the health system’s latest deployed kiosk is at a YMCA in Trinity, Fla. The kiosk offers acute medical care from physicians through video conferencing and medical diagnostic equipment. Some telehealth sessions are conducted by BayCare physicians that are a part of the health systems BayCareAnywhere, a consumer telehealth featuring a mobile app.  Other video sessions are conducted by physicians who are part of a provider network maintained by American Well, BayCare’s telehealth services provider.

The telehealth kiosk, which features a private room inside the YMCA and at Publix stores, is interactive and easy to use, BayCare says.  The technology allows patients to easily enter their symptoms through a touchscreen and work with medical tools such as thermometers, dermatoscopes, otoscopes, pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuffs and high definition cameras to help doctors make an accurate diagnosis. Physicians can diagnose such non-emergency medical conditions as flu or cold, cough, pink eye, low grade fever, sinus infection and skin rashes, Publix says. Patients do not need to schedule an appointment.

“We’re the first health system in the Tampa Bay area to bring high-quality healthcare into a wellness facility using telehealth technology,” Cote says. “This collaboration allows us to make healthcare more convenient for the local community and provide easier access to care when residents need it.”

NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center is currently deploying one telehealth kiosk at Duane Reade drugstore in Manhattan. In fact in March, a man walking in off the street to in that drug store in Manhattan got key advice from a digital doctor visit that in all likelihood saved his life. In this case, it was by seeking treatment before having a fatal heart attack after a NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center doctor during a telehealth session diagnosed the patient as having congestive heart failure.

Jim Cote

BayCare is believed to be the health system deploying the most telehealth kiosks among U.S. hospitals thus far. In Tampa Bay, BayCare, a big user of digital and mobile healthcare programs, is rolling kiosks linked to digital doctor visits, to expand the ways patients can seek treatment outside of a hospital or conventional doctor’s office. “This is all about convenience,” Cote says. “This is about delivering care in a new way reaching people where they are.”

BayCare picked a local YMCA to deploy its latest kiosk because of an ongoing relationship BayCare has with the organization, Cote says.

The cost for a patient to use a kiosk for a video doctor visit is about $45. So far the telehealth kiosks located in Publix supermarkets are doing between two and four visits per week.

The number of telehealth sessions will increase as BayCare, Publix and YMCA conduct more conventional marketing and social media campaigns, Cote says. “Store pharmacists have been asked about the kiosks and they explain all about it,” Cote says. “Individual stores also are doing more of their own promoting.” Patients can use Publix’s self-service screening stations to measure blood pressure and heart rate, and calculate body mass index at no cost. Additional screening services such as blood glucose and cholesterol screenings can be performed by a Publix pharmacist for $45. Patients can electronically send results of their screening directly to their BayCare physician.

Health screenings are provided through kiosks from higi, a Chicago-based health technology provider.

“We are finding some patients are using telehealth and the kiosk to receive care from us for the first time,” Cote says.

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