What are telehealth and examples?
Telehealth is the broad scope of healthcare services offered through online programs and technologies and is quickly becoming commonplace in the healthcare sector. There are many advantages and examples to its use, including:
- Convenience - It provides a way for clients and practitioners to conveniently connect from the privacy and comfort of their own homes while still maintaining a high level of care.
- Privacy - With telemedical technology, patients can also be assured that their information is kept private and confidential, with many platforms offering high-end security. Examples include verification steps, firewalls, data encryption.
- Clinical use - Telehealth applies to clinical and non-clinical contexts and can consult patients through services such as video conferencing, calling, and messaging.
- Non-clinical use - Conversely, telehealth can also provide training for healthcare workers, such as supplying a channel for providers to hold administrative meetings and offer support. This is also in addition to various other healthcare services.
Its dual-modality and uses make it a viable option for practitioners and patients alike and easy access to healthcare.
What are some of the issues with telehealth?
While a beneficial service, there are some issues with telehealth that need improvement.
Telemedicine hospital mistakes
For telemedicine, the use of remote clinical services, there are some telemedicine hospital mistakes that telematics makes. If left uncorrected, these could cause serious harm to the teledoc health industry.
- Misdiagnosis - Because of the remote consultation aspect, sometimes important details can go unchecked. Or, because specific examinations and tests are limited to in-person visits, some diagnoses are straight-up wrong or heavily delayed. This is a critical error that can lead to severe negative consequences for the patient and their treatment.
- Lack of clinician choice - Some platforms offer limited specialists and clinicians, resulting in patients being assigned to doctors or medical healthcare professionals who have limited expertise.
- Failure to supply clinician credentials - Conversely, because it is an online service, it can easily manipulate information and data to appear qualified. Or the recruiting process itself lacks regulatory policies and standards in place.
- Failure to obtain patient information - Interoperability issues can sometimes fail to access patient medical records across different healthcare practices.
Telehealth common issues
For telehealth in its general use, some issues can pose challenges for practitioners and patients. These include some of the following:
- Breach of patient privacy - Because telehealth deals with online data, this means they are susceptible to hacking and leakage. However, many telehealth platforms acknowledge this by implementing high-end security systems with top-level encryption.
- Cost of implementation - Depending on your needs of the telehealth platform infrastructure to meet, this process of initially establishing the platform could be costly to start with
- Lack of physical interaction - Telehealth is conducted entirely online, and so this means some examinations and tests usually performed in-person may have to be substituted. Or, they may need to be provided for clients to attend to them if they cannot be replaced by virtual means.
- Reimbursement - Many healthcare practices may find difficulty in covering costs as telehealth is not given the same approach of insurance as in-person healthcare facilities are
7 Common Telemedicine Mistakes to Avoid for Hospitals
In the face of telemedicine’s challenges, some popular mistakes should be addressed in your healthcare practice.
- Not considering use case - Without considering the specific population of patients you will be meeting with, in addition to the medical conditions your telemedicine will target and approach, as well as the types of telemedicine portals you will use, immense problems can arise. This means that your goals and treatment plans will not be practical or apparent to the patient.
- Cheaping out - When it comes to healthcare, and the lives of your patients, being cheap is not an option. You should be investing in a platform and software that meets all your needs. You need to consider a platform that not only prioritizes client needs but provides top security with reliable customer support.
- Try it yourself - If you don’t try out your telemedicine platform, you cannot expect patients and staff to find the interface easy to use and understand.
It’s best to test out all the features offered, and a great way to do so is to ask family and friends to act as ‘patients’ and provide feedback. This way, you can know whether the service is suited to your practice.
- No advertising - Lack of advertising means no one will know about your service. Establishing a differentiated telemedicine service is an achievement you should be proud of, and you should share it! Advertising via social media and through word-of-mouth is a great way to promote.
- Lack of compliance - Guidelines, standards, and laws can get complex and tricky quite fast. Make sure you understand your telemedicine business's required to ensure you don’t get into any trouble.
- Train, train, train! - Before you introduce your telemedicine service, you must make sure your staff understands how to use it. This way, if customers need support, then you and your staff can quickly troubleshoot and offer support.
- No trials - It can be scary to implement a service without knowing how it’ll be received, so it is best to trial it. Doing so will allow you to use feedback to improve or alter your service with the needs of patients prioritized.
How to overcome the common telemedicine mistakes?
Thankfully, there are additional ways to overcome common telemedicine mistakes to make sure your telemedicine practice is the best it can be.
Strategies to successfully implement disruptive telehealth technology
- Understand patient expectations - Knowing what patient needs are and what providers want when working with online data will mean your telehealth service can be effective in directly addressing their problems. After all, your service is based around the patient!
- Let go of revenue expectations - While telehealth is as effective as in-person visits, it is less likely to be reimbursed. Virtual services also provide different demands and needs than in-person. It is unfair to place the exact revenue expectations as you would for in-person assistance, so save yourself the stress and let them go.
- Deconstruct traditional healthcare - Being different is a good thing; it means that your patients will use a differentiated service, and also means you’ll also stand out as a practice. Using value stream mapping or collecting patient information ahead of time are innovative ways to enhance the current climate of healthcare.
- Explore, and be bold! - Telehealth is an up-and-coming healthcare service, meaning that there are always new creations and innovations worked on and being created. It would be a great disservice not to have an open mind to these ideas, which could provide new opportunities for your business.
- Be mindful of space - Because telehealth services remove the in-person physical component, you should still implement aspects that allow patients to feel like they are receiving biological treatment. This means creating safe spaces where they feel they can share private information.
- Improving value - Working on the six dimensions of safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equitableness can provide a service that boosts patient value.
- Integrate - Ensure a high degree of interoperability with easy access to data across healthcare practices. This allows for a seamless workflow across your telemedical spaces.
- Ensure HIPAA compliance - This way, your patient data is private with the utmost security, and your patients can take comfort in knowing their information is confidential.
Reasons why telemedicine is going to be the future of medicine
Telemedicine is an innovative way for patients to receive treatment, as virtual technology provides a safe space to discuss health from the comforts of home. Because of its accessible and convenient nature, it is completely revolutionizing how telehealth and medical care are administered. Especially during COVID-19, which presents various physical obstacles, telemedicine means clients can communicate with practitioners without any risk of spread.
Practitioners can also reach a wider clientele with online healthcare services, as individuals in isolated communities can be achieved. Specialists can also consult with these individuals who don’t have the means to access physical healthcare appointments. Platforms such as Carepatron enable telemedical businesses to incorporate a seamless workflow interface that allows this online consulting, appointment scheduling and reminders, and clinical documenting all in one place. Clinicians can continue to make a difference in medicine, with telehealth providing the same effect as face-to-face appointments.
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