BENEFITS OF TELEHEALTH FOR PATIENTS
The inefficient nature of traditional healthcare provision can lead to a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction among those in receipt of care, this brings into sharp focus the benefits that are there to be gained from telehealth for patients.
Consequences of Inefficient Healthcare provision
Traditional care provision suffers due to long standing institutional techniques and behaviors. It can lead to consequences such as:
- Unhappy Patients
- Poor access in remote locations
- Poor treatment management for chronic illnesses
- Care is fragmented
- Inefficient use of time for patients and medics
Using Telehealth Methods
Telehealth is defined as using telecommunications technologies to improve health care, public health and health education delivery and support. It includes a wide range of different ways to provide virtual medical, health, and education services.
The main three methods for providing telehealth are:
- Live Video Conferencing: This is for pre-operative prep/follow-up reviews including the treatment team and the patient or for a consultation with a physician or a remotely-located specialist
- Store-and-Forward: This involves a patient sending medical information to a medical professional for consideration. There is no need for real-time communication to take place and it acts as a support for both the diagnosis and treatment procedure
- Remote Patient Monitoring: A range of methods allow a treatment team to review a patient’s health virtually. Four typical applications are data measurement/collection apps, wearable tech, data transmitters and home-based remote monitoring.
Benefits of Using Telehealth
1. Enhance Communication via Remote Monitoring
Hospitals and health systems are always trying to identify new ways to communicate with their patients without requiring them to attend an appointment physically. Telehealth can be implemented to track patient metrics remotely. This allows remote care teams to guide and advise patients as they make their way towards improved health.
2. New Revenue Streams
Telehealth can allow medical specialists to grow their patient base further afield with longer opening hours, greater accessibility and a broader customer base.
3. More Efficient Clinical Workflows
Clinical workflows are much more efficient, allowing for speedier prioritization of care delivery, triaging each case and enhancing communication through recording, saving, and implementing patient data for improved medical decision-making.
4. Greater Access for Patients
There is better access for patients in rural areas using Telehealth. This tool can be implemented in relation to mid-level patient training and also for physician diagnosis.
5. Higher Revenues
Physicians can extend hours to create more billable hours. This eliminates no-shows and generally enhances the efficiency of a practice. Telehealth can also allow for a competitive advantage, attracting and retaining more patients with new types of treatment.
6. Lower Patient Expenditure
Patients invest a considerable amount of cash in healthcare. Cost can be cut through Telehealth in relation to travel, parking, childcare, and taking time off work. These requirements are eliminated.
7. Practice Overheads are Cut
SaaS telehealth applications are low cost to configure are cut the cost of conducting a consultation for a clinic
8. Improves Healthcare Quality
Telehealth improves healthcare quality, particularly in rural locations, thanks to better service delivery and enhanced treatment of acute conditions.
9. Improves Patient Satisfaction
A patient survey conducted by the nationwide chain of CVS Minute Clinics indicated that around a 99% satisfaction score was recorded in relation to telehealth sessions.
10. Reduces Patient No-Shows
Typically telehealth experiences just half the amount of no-show by patients compared to in-person sessions.
Conclusion: Advantages of Telehealth
While telehealth does not seek to completely restructure the healthcare sector it can efficiently and safely address some chronic issues in the current healthcare environment. As technology improves so does the provision of telehealth as each new year sees clearer new technology introduced.