What do you mean by mobile healthcare services?
Mobile healthcare services are the leading healthcare delivery option for prioritized convenience and efficiency within healthcare practices. Transitioning to mobile health will prove highly advantageous for both your healthcare practice and for your patients. With a mobile health app, you will be able to strengthen relationships with your patients, whilst providing them with the highest level of care. As reported by the CDC, mobile health uses grew by 50% in 2020, with their services allowing patients to step into a larger self-management and efficient role in healthcare. Patients can book appointments online, send payments in minutes, and have constant access to their medical information. Having a more integral role in the healthcare process can provide a greater sense of control for patients, which is vital towards their overall progress and treatment.
The benefits also don’t end there! With mobile healthcare services, you can conduct online sessions from the comfort of your home, as well as have a platform to compile clinical documents and medical records. Even better, implementing the software has been shown to be highly cost-effective. Mobile healthcare services are an evident pathway to ensuring success for your practice, and if this doesn’t convince you, we have collated the top reasons why you should implement mobile practices.
Can a psychology practice adopt mobile services?
If you’re concerned as to whether your psychologist practice can handle mobile services, don’t be! In fact, psychology practices are one of the best healthcare disciplines to be fully immersed in mobile services, largely due to their convenient and efficient format.
It’s not always possible to meet in person, especially within the current Covid-19 climate, and mobile services are a great avenue for you to meet with patients from the comfort of your home. For example, at any time or place, you can maintain and strengthen professional relationships with your clients through video conferencing, calling, and messaging services. Support can be delivered from anywhere, and mobile apps allow you to continue to deliver a high standard of care and quality when it comes to treatment plans. In the case that you don’t have access to your work computer, mobile services can still enable you to stay connected, and patients are able to link with online support communities to chat with others and receive support.
5 benefits of going mobile as a psychology practice
To summarize why you should implement mobile healthcare services into your psychology practice, we have compiled some of the benefits that will serve your best interest. Incorporating these into your mobile services will allow you to deliver the best healthcare treatments to your patients, and will produce strong clinical outcomes.
- Clinical documentation - Mobile services allow you to use online resources and templates to produce high-quality progress notes that any healthcare professional can easily understand and use. Apps also provide a place for you to store clinical notes and documents securely, with all electronic records accessible from your mobile. Going mobile will increase the quality of your medical reasoning, as well as eliminate the long and tedious process of handwritten notes. Nice!
- Easy appointment scheduling - With online mobile services, you can create optimized appointment schedules that accommodate any cancellations or reschedules, as well as generating reminders to reduce no-shows. You can ensure you’re seeing as many patients as capacity allows, whilst also sustaining a self-sufficient system, with patients able to book themselves an appointment. This reduces the need for administrative staff, as patients are less likely to call the clinic and book appointments manually. All in all, it’s a win, as the time and money saved can benefit other areas of your healthcare practice.
- Real-time payments - You can also send and receive payments online through the healthcare app, all in real-time, which is super convenient for easy processing and quick transactions. No more delays or long waits, with real-time data ensuring significant reductions in outstanding payments, which is highly beneficial for your practice.
- Highly secure data - When it comes to healthcare, you often deal with sensitive patient information that needs a high level of protection. For example, patient contact details, banking information, and medical records all need a high level of encryption to prevent data leakages. Mobile healthcare systems are an excellent way to secure information, as they often implement bank-level encryption services, in addition to firewalls and other security measures. You can rest easy having full confidence that all your information is safe.
- Integrated workspace - Never has it been easier to manage a variety of features all at once, from a single, secure place. With the right mobile healthcare platform, you can collaborate and communicate with other healthcare professionals and patients through video conferencing and messaging. You can also manage clinical information and notes, whilst examining medical records, treatment plans, medication management, and processing payments. Medical billing and coding processes are also simplified, with embedded templates and resources guiding you to create accurate claims. The possibilities are endless with mobile technology, and having the ability to access data across practices is an indisputable asset.
Tips for effective mobile therapy
Mobile therapy has its nuances, and to ensure that you implement it successfully, there are some things you should consider. Focusing on these aspects will allow you to provide higher quality and standard of care when it comes to your patients, and enable you to be just as effective as if you were to conduct sessions in person.
- Ensure privacy - When you have a session with a client, they should be assured that any information shared will remain between the two of you. For example, there needs to be limited access so that only you and the relevant patient/s can log in. Having unique logins, encrypted software and security protocols can help maintain confidentiality.
- Maintain ethics - Just because you’re conducting sessions online, doesn’t mean you’re exempt from the ethical code. You still need to adhere to ethical guidelines to maintain professionalism in your workplace and document good decision-making.
- Minimize distractions - When having therapy sessions at home, it can be very easy to be distracted by children, your dog, and the postman at the door. Not to mention laggy internet! We know it can be tricky, and it’s not always possible to have smooth-running sessions, but these obstacles can be avoided. Use a separate space removed from others, and turn off any notifications that may be distracting.
- Verification - Make sure that you verify the patient and their location to ensure that you’re talking to the right person. This is particularly useful for emergencies when there is a high-risk patient, and in a situation where their camera is off, you need to monitor that they are safe.
- Have intentional communication - Communicating can look very different online vs. face-to-face, and so you need to be very clear with what you want to convey. For example, if a patient has a fuzzy camera connection, you should acknowledge this, saying something like, “I can’t see you right now, but I understand that this is a difficult experience for you.” You may need to talk more often, and take closer note of facial expressions. This is a learning curve for everyone, but you should keep in mind that greater sensitivity and awareness are needed for mobile therapy.
Take home message
Mobile therapy is a great tool for psychology practices as they allow practitioners to maintain patient relationships whilst providing a more convenient channel for clients to communicate. They’re revolutionizing the way healthcare services are delivered, with easy access reaching a wider clientele and enabling you to work towards an efficient standard and higher quality of care. Because they’re customizable to your needs, mobile health is highly flexible and accommodates a variety of needs for low and high-risk individuals who need mental health help. Quite simply, they’re the way of the future, and taking advantage of this growing trend will drive the success of your practice.
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