Telemedicine in Senior Healthcare Leads to Dramatic Decrease in Hospitalization Rates and Costs
Telemedicine gets credit for the reduced number of retirees making trips to access medical treatment. The aging populace can now receive quality healthcare using this top of the range technology from the comfort of their homes. Apart from this, telemedicine brings convenience not only to the patient but also the caregivers, and it simultaneously lowers costs in regards to hospitalization and transport. With that in mind, here are some of the advantages of telemedicine:
No delays and Quick Response: Take into account retirees suffering from one ailment or another and the time encumbered caregivers—waiting rooms can be a place of frustration and anxiety for both patient and caregiver. Telemedicine cancels out waiting room pandemonium to replace this with ease of communication through emails, text messaging and other digital communication.
Recuperating at home: In some cases, patients are discharged but need professional monitoring. Take for an example, diabetic patients, those with chronic obstructive heart conditions (COPD), pneumonia, heart failure among others need caregivers to pay them visits.
Telemedicine brings remote patient monitoring (RPM) facilitates thus, constant contact between patients and nurses so that any arising concerns are addressed with immediacy.
Moreover, this particular telehealth program gives real-time data, giving responsibility for the situation to the patient and the professional caregivers.
Using telemedicine has reduced the number of readmissions drastically. Here is the proof: the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville created and implemented this telehealth program. Results? After the lapse of one year, the center experienced a reduction in its monthly readmission. Furthermore, this total was a 10% decrease as compared to the nation’s average of 17.5%.
Also, further studies on RPM; therefore, telemedicine, reveal this method could successfully stop or reduce readmission of pulmonary-related hospital readmission from 460,000-627,000, annually.
Reduced Costs
In reality, the majority of doctors charge more for a physical visit as opposed to a telehealth consultation. Therefore, access to telemedicine also translates into reduction in transportation expenses and convenient access to healthcare, more so for those residing in rural areas.