Integrating current telemedicine techniques into your healthcare practice can provide you multiple advantages. These include reduced costs of healthcare, a more efficient practice, increased revenue, and provision of easier access to healthcare for your patients, all resulting in healthier, more satisfied patients who wish to remain under your care.
Convenience is the magic word in today’s world, and this holds true in the field of healthcare too. The addition of telehealth to your practice will help your patients obtain quick yet customized care, without having to deal with setting appointments, wasting time, and shouldering the cost of in-person visits.
The option of virtual visits can make accessing healthcare easy for patients who are housebound, live in distant locations, or are unable to take time off their jobs.
Virtual monitoring and consultation, along with electronic storage of data, decrease the service costs of healthcare to a great extent, increasing cost-efficiency for healthcare providers and patients, as well as insurance companies. In addition, telemedicine helps cut down on avoidable visits to the ER for minor issues and reduces the transport costs for routine checkups.
By using telehealth, fast and appropriate specialist access can be provided to patients residing in distant or rural areas. The specialist to the rural patient ratio in the United States is greatly imbalanced; for every 100,000 patients in remote areas, there are just 43 available specialists.
As a result of this shortage, patients have a hard time obtaining consultations in life-threatening circumstances or for rare/chronic diseases. In addition, they often have to travel long distances to meet appointments and receive care.
Patients’ commitment to their own care is vital for improving health and reducing costs. As pointed out by Jan Oldenburg (Ernst & Young Senior Advisory Services Manager) to Healthcare IT News, “[t]he high cost of disengaged consumers affects everybody.” Telemedicine compels patients to contribute a higher level of involvement in their own care, and this can push them to be more regular are careful about meeting appointments and adhering to schedules. This increased involvement can also help lower the rates of obesity and use of tobacco, by motivating healthier lifestyles among patients.
Telemedicine is focused primarily on the benefit and convenience of the patient – e.g. the provision of appropriate and timely care. This is essential, in order to ensure that the care provided is high in quality. Using telemedicine, patients are able to obtain urgent consultations as and when they experience any health issue and gain information on options for treatment in no time.
A recent study reveals that patients who receive care via telemedicine display lower rates of stress, depression, and anxiety, in addition to having 38% fewer admissions in hospitals.