In today’s connected world, a majority of healthcare patients prefer easy access to physician services over in-person office visits. Whether a patient needs advice on a child’s fever, wants clarification on medication or presents with a condition that can be assessed and treated remotely, virtual visits offer on-demand care without the loss of time or the cost of most in-office visits. Of course, not all visits with a doctor can be replaced by video meetings. Some diagnoses require an initial hands-on examination, but telehealth visits still add value to these scenarios because progress can be monitored and followed through virtual contact. Offering this convenience in your practice benefits your patients, lowers your office overhead and expands your caseload.
Telehealth offers the capability for providers to quickly and easily schedule patients over video, allow patients to self-schedule, use remote patient monitoring systems and more. The positive effect this has on patient/provider relationships is undeniable. Patients become more engaged in managing their healthcare. With patient benefits such as increased accessibility, and provider benefits like improved efficiency and revenue, telehealth systems enhance any practice.
Accessibility. For many patients, traveling to an office can either be difficult or impossible. Whether a patient lives in a remote location, is homebound or simply cannot take time off from work, telehealth services provide virtual access to to care via your computer, tablet or cell phone. By using virtual visits, children miss less school and patients save travel and missed-work costs. Providers also benefit from increased patient accessibility through reduced no-shows and “on-demand capabilities” to fill in any gaps in appointments.
Improved Patient Commitment. By increasing your accessibility, your patients are encouraged to take an active role in their own health care, especially because it’s so easy and convenient to do so. Patients who might otherwise forego treatment tend to keep virtual appointments, maintain their care schedules more completely and return online for follow ups. With telehealth platform SecureVideo, patients feel confident in its ease of use and look forward to visits. Your patients feel reassured that you are available and committed to help; and they find it easy to reach out to you with questions or concerns.
Quick Quality Care. With telehealth, your rapid virtual response to patients promotes quality patient care. As an American Hospital Association report shows, with telehealth, patients address health issues quickly and receive treatment in minutes – lowering patient stress and anxiety and decreasing hospital admissions.
Finding a Specialist. Finding a specialist is difficult in many areas of the U.S., with rural communities often underserved by many specialties. When patients need specialty care, your telehealth system can connect to your website and provide the array of services your patients need.
Does your practice offer various kinds of therapy? Set up different portals for your patients to enter.
“Marriage and Family Therapists”
“PTSD Therapists”
“Trauma Therapists”
These different portals send a notification to the specific specialists providing the service, making it organized and efficient for your practice.
Provider Cost Benefits. Healthcare providers see cost savings in remote monitoring and analysis services as well as electronic data storage. But a telehealth system also boosts revenue by
- attracting patients from remote areas
- allowing one provider or practice to maintain a larger case load through increased efficiencies
- reducing appointment cancellations
- providing a source of billable hours during on-call times and unfilled appointment times
- reducing overhead for physicians who prefer a “work from home” model
- promoting the expansion of a specialist practice to a wider geographic area.
The telehealth market is growing rapidly, spurred by state laws mandating that health plans cover telehealth services, employers offering the services as an employee benefit and health care organizations implementing virtual programs. With the US leading the way, an anticipated 7 million patients will use telehealth services this year. As a healthcare provider, this is the perfect time to expand your practice by offering telehealth services to your patients – for their benefit and yours.
For more information, contact SecureVideo to see how HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing can improve your practice.