Telehealth, The Future Of Efficient
And Equitable Healthcare
Telehealth,
also known as telemedicine, is the use of electronic information and
telecommunications technologies to provide care when the patient and the doctor
are not in the same place at the same time. The facility connects patients to
vital health services through video conferencing, remote monitoring, electronic
consultations and wireless communications. The ease of contact with a doctor
has practically proved to be a great relief to those who needed the doctor's
suggestion, but struggled to physically reach their place. Through telehealth, doctors have the
opportunity to provide care, go through the various health reports and stay in
touch with their patients when face to face patient care is not possible.
Emergence of virtual patient
care during the COVID 19 pandemic
Before
COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was most frequently used in rural and remote
areas where patients would otherwise have to travel long distances to receive
care. The urban group of patients and their families were somewhat reluctant to
receive virtual healthcare. But as the COVID-19 crisis developed, concerns
arose among public health officials that some patients without the ability to
receive healthcare over the phone or via video calls would not seek treatment
at all. That can have detrimental effects on their health. Telemedicine at that time, was seen as the best means for
doctors to evaluate and triage patients without exposing them unnecessarily to
infections. It provides convenience for both the patient and physician by
negating the need for a physical visit for medical advice or treatment. The
process is quite cost effective. The solution enables healthcare providers to
expand their reach and improve efficiency and effectiveness, while maintaining
high quality healthcare and complete focus on patient safety.
Benefits that telehealth
offers to modern healthcare
Now
that the mental barrier of most Americans' to telecare has been broken, the
service is proving to bridge the gap between people, doctors and health
systems, allowing anyone, especially symptomatic patients, to stay home and
communicate with doctors through virtual channels. Telehealth is a means of
improving patient care, it is by no means intended to replace physical patient
care. Remote care benefits patients, saves their precious time and travel. It
benefits physicians as well by increasing their reach to a larger population
geographically. The other benefits range from lowering healthcare costs to
faster response times. The virtual care is HIPAA compliant healthcare that
stays within the purview of the state regulations. Eprescription, an important part of telemedicine, has proved
to improve the safety and quality of the prescribing process. It enables
healthcare providers to send prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy,
reducing prescribing errors, increasing efficiency and saving on healthcare
costs.
In
addition, there is a specific crisis that the US healthcare sector is facing today,
an acute manpower crisis that sometimes disrupts basic patient care. Virtual
healthcare is a very good way to provide basic patient care in a much more
personalized way. It further provides the facilities to capture, store and use
patient data for better medical decision making in the future. It reduces the
number of no-shows and improves the efficiency of a practice.
Now
that you can learn about the multiple benefits of telehealth, don't you feel the need to have the best
solution for your healthcare facility from the most trusted and reputable
service provider? If you do, then contact Meditab
today!
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