At least half of all US hospitals have adopted telemedicine, and the trend continues to rise.
According to a recent survey, it was found that 90% of healthcare executives have incorporated a telemedicine program into their institutions. What is even interesting is the fact that smaller providers and independent practices are also adopting telemedicine to compete with retail clinics in their locality.
Even though the telemedicine industry is doing relatively well, there are a few obstacles that need to be dealt with. If you are planning to develop and incorporate a telemedicine platform of your own, you will need to make sure it is reliable, to say the least. For which reason, here are a couple of factors to consider, to make sure your telemedicine platform does not lack in any way.
Accessibility and Convenience
74% of patients prefer having easy access to healthcare services, rather than in-person interactions with their providers, as reported by Cisco. But if you think about it, in this day and age, even in healthcare industries, convenience is all that matters.
By adding a telemedicine platform to your practice, your patients will find it easier to access healthcare services, without having to wait or spending excessive amounts of money for in-person visits. What this means is that people that are homebound, or live in remote locations, can access healthcare virtually.
This can all be made possible with the help of online management systems, video conferencing and smartphone apps; thus ensuring patients are connected with their providers, like never before.
Healthcare Cost Savings
Electronic data storage, monitoring services, and remote analysis make it possible to reduce health care service costs. This not only allows patients to save a lot of money, but insurance companies can also benefit from such savings.
Thanks to telemedicine, patients do not have to worry about making non-urgent visits, and also eliminates transportation costs for driving to and from regular checkups.
The American Hospital Association recently reported an 11% drop in costs due to the implementation of telemedicine, which in turn also increased the ROI for investors.
Apart from the generic cost savings, telemedicine can also make it easier for doctors to increase their revenue. Simply put, their on-call hours can be used to attract new patients, reduce overheads, reduce no-shows and convert to a work-from-home model for a few days of the week.
Patient Engagement
When patients are committed to their healthcare, it will automatically lead to improved health and lower costs. However, if patients are disengaged, it ends up affecting everybody.
Fortunately, this problem can be dealt with through telemedicine. If done correctly, patients will be proactive when it comes to meeting care schedules and maintaining appointments. Additionally, it will also reduce obesity rates, and even tobacco use encouraging patients to make healthy lifestyle choices.
With virtual visits by their doctors, patients will feel they are cared for. Said patients will feel more confident, ask more questions, make follow-up appointments, report early signs and so on and so forth.
Quality Care for Patients
Telemedicine is specific with patient-centered approaches, like better timeliness of care, which is vital for quality patient care. With the help of real-time urgent care consultation, patients will find resolutions for healthcare issues and learn about different available treatment options quickly.
To put things into perspective, a new study revealed that patients that use telemedicine platforms are less likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and stress. Moreover, their hospital admissions drop considerably at the same time.
As long as the aforementioned factors are considered while planning and implementing a telemedicine platform, it is highly unlikely it will fail. But that is not all as the chances of your platform failing will be next to none.
With telemedicine being far more effective at offering access to specialists, especially to those that live in remote locations, its importance and potential cannot be undermined, nor should it be ignored. Healthcare service providers are working with top telehealth company to capitalize on the benefits telemedicine has to offer.