Healthcare telemedicine services company Banyan Medical Systems reported on Friday the launch of the philanthropic Telehealth Aid Programme for Hospitals (TAP4H) to enable isolation patients in hospitals to receive optimal care, while providing protection to the hospital staff.

Under the first phase of the TAP4H programme, the company pledges a USD1m investment to enable 100 isolation rooms across 20 hospitals in the US and plans to expand the programme into subsequent phases. Approved and participating hospitals will receive hardware, software, installation services and virtual care services at no cost for up to five rooms for three months.

The company added that the COVID-19 crisis demands minimal contact between patients and staff and hence introducing telemedicine to decrease the risk of infection and benefit the public.It will supplement local hospital with virtual professionals and technology to enable new use-cases. Many hospitals are currently dealing with an influx of patients and expect the surge to continue over the next several months.

Banyan also said that through its TAP4H programme, it is offering its platform to hospitals dealing with COVID-19 patients to enable isolation and treatment. These facilities can provide the best patient care through use of virtual medical staff, high-fidelity two-way video communication capabilities and healthcare-specific task coordination technology.

Using the company's telehealth services, MarinHealth, one of Banyan's partners located north of San Francisco, monitors COVID-19 patients remotely, from out-of-state medical call-centres and from virtual nursing stations within the walls of the hospital itself.