Telehealth During Pandemic
Learn about telehealth during pandemic and the benefits to patients and providers. Find out more about telehealth at Concise Recovery.
What Is Telehealth?
Telehealth describes a wide range of services and technologies that provide healthcare to improve patients’ total wellbeing. In the simplest terms, telehealth uses digital information and communication technologies like mobile devices and computers to deliver health care services remotely and manage patient health care.
These technologies may be used directly from home or by a patient’s healthcare provider to improve or support health care services. The main goal of telehealth is to provide accessible healthcare.1
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Difference Between Telehealth and Telemedicine
Telemedicine involves the use of technology to deliver care remotely. i.e., a health care practitioner at one location using telecommunications to give care to a patient much far away. An example is the delivery of telemedicine over the phone. The telemedicine versus telehealth debate is different from telemedicine in the healthcare system because telehealth encompasses more concepts on a broader scale. Telehealth medicine covers all kinds of remote healthcare services, while telemedicine uses in healthcare cover strictly clinical services remotely.2
There is a wide range of benefits of telemedicine for providers, but they are incomparable to those of telehealth. Telehealth technologies make it possible to evaluate, diagnose and observe patients’ conditions remotely so the physician can monitor fluctuations in the patient’s health condition. In comparison, most telemedicine in the healthcare system can easily be found within the telehealth scope.
What Are the Benefits of Telehealth?
There are many benefits of telehealth; this was seen especially during the pandemic with the implementation of social distancing and the reduced likelihood of receiving routine healthcare physically. This shift in healthcare delivery led to telehealth’s growth and the exploitation of its many benefits. Telehealth technology is beneficial to patients and health care providers.
Benefits of Telehealth to Patients
There are many benefits of telehealth to patients; these include:
Less Time Away from Work
Telehealth gives the patients opportunities to take less time away from work when seeking healthcare. Going to the hospital and waiting to see a doctor can be time-consuming. People have learned to spend less time on healthcare issues and queries that providers could quickly resolve remotely with the pandemic. Telehealth allows patients to spend less time seeking care or information physically for minor health care issues.
No Travel Expenses or Time
Telehealth care makes it possible to monitor a patient remotely no matter where they are. A patient doesn’t need to be bothered about returning from a trip simply because they need to receive healthcare or information. Telehealth makes it easy for healthcare providers to care for patients from wherever they are.
Less Interference with Adult or Childcare Responsibilities
Patients can quickly attend to their duties with no interference. Going to the clinic could interfere with these responsibilities if patients had a child or an older person in their care, especially when the dependent isn’t required to come along. Telehealth medicine offers remote care and helps solve this problem.
Privacy
Telehealth care is private, so patients’ data and information are very secure. Patients can trust that their privacy is respected and cannot be tampered with or stolen.
There Is No Exposure to Potentially Contagious Patients
A common occurrence in hospitals and clinics is the increasing possibility of exposure to community-acquired conditions. A good example is being exposed to Covid. The successful implementation of telehealth during pandemics helps protect patients from encountering other patients who may be potentially contagious.
Benefits Of Telehealth to Healthcare Providers
More patients can have access to a healthcare provider’s services with telehealth medicine. This translates to more clients and, subsequently, more revenue.
Improved Office Efficiency
There is less physical crowding with telehealth technology since many people are taken care of remotely. This helps healthcare providers keep track of patients more efficiently. Telehealth technologies make it easier for healthcare providers to be more efficient in carrying out their duties.
An Answer to The Competitive Threat of Retail Health Clinics and Online-Only Providers
The constant threat of competition can be overwhelming for businesses, especially in the healthcare sector. This competition exists physically and online. The answer to these threats is to adopt telehealth technologies as it gives a clinic an edge over competitors.
Fewer Missed Appointments and Cancellations
With Telehealth technologies, patients tend to cancel or miss appointments less because keeping up remotely is more convenient. Patients are more likely to meet up using telehealth technologies than in person.
Better Patient Follow-Through and Improved Health Outcomes
There are better chances of proper follow-through on a patient with telehealth technology as the clinic has direct contact with these patients. Unlike an in-person follow-through which would require constant calls to remind patients to come in physically. Subsequently, this produces better health outcomes than an in-person clinical follow-through.
Private Payer Reimbursement
Telehealth technology can be covered by private payers, which means that clients hardly owe clinics as the insurance companies reimburse the clinic for whatever the healthcare might cost.
What Can Telehealth Treat?
Telehealth can treat several conditions, including the following:
Headaches
Medical telehealth care offers a patient the opportunity to meet specialists for various forms of headaches, including migraines. With access to specialists that ordinarily will not be accessed physically.3
Skin Conditions Such as Acne or Rashes
Telehealth used in healthcare can be very effective in treating skin conditions with the help of a specialist. This is done through photos and videos. That way, the specialist knows what is required.
Musculoskeletal Conditions Such as Backaches
Telehealth used in healthcare has a branch known as telerehabilitation, mainly for treating musculoskeletal conditions and generating the best results.4
Mental Health Such as Anxiety or Depression
Medical telehealth has a branch called telepsychology which strictly deals with treating mental health conditions with the help of professionals. The sessions are entirely virtual and have proven sufficient time and again.5
Gastrointestinal Symptoms Such as Constipation
Medical telehealth can be very effective in treating digestive diseases through the help of professional telehealth providers who provide care remotely.
Chronic Conditions Such as Diabetes
Even with chronic conditions such as diabetes, studies have found that telehealth medicine can effectively improve blood glucose control.6
What Happens to Telemedicine After Covid-19?
The telehealth purpose was to improve healthcare during the pandemic without putting patients at the risk of contracting the Covid-19 virus. Post-pandemic Telehealth in medicine should be here to stay, with a lot more people using telehealth technologies to receive adequate health care and improve their quality of life. Telehealth has solved several healthcare challenges as regards easy and safe healthcare.
Telehealth, if appropriately implemented, has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare system, making it easier for telehealth providers and patients to deliver and receive quality healthcare.
How To Use Telehealth Technologies
There are three primary modalities of telehealth technologies used in standard common telehealth services; they include the following:
Real-Time
This involves video conferencing to provide virtual tours and consultations with a telehealth provider. It is simply the provision of telemedicine in real-time over an interactive interface by telehealth providers.
Store and Forward
This is also called asynchronous telehealth. This variant of telehealth delivery involves gathering information such as medical information, history, etc. This information is then carefully stored and can be generated, used, and forwarded to patients and other healthcare providers when needed.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
This variant of telehealth allows caregivers to offer care and monitor patient progress. This technology uses a wearable wireless device that gathers patients’ medical information, making it easy for their healthcare provider to monitor their health remotely. It is often referred to as telemonitoring. Telehealth and telemonitoring work hand in hand and enable healthcare providers to provide care and make accurate decisions based on their observations.
The Future of Telehealth Services
Telehealth during pandemic has slowly revolutionized the healthcare industry worldwide. Making it a lot more convenient for patients and healthcare providers to receive and deliver healthcare. A telehealth purpose is to consume less time and provide improved services to patients. Telehealth in medicine will continue to be used by people as time goes on and is the future of easy and accessible healthcare. As with any developing system, there are a few problems with telehealth. But this can easily be surmounted if more effort is put into telehealth optimization, telehealth training for providers, and education for users.
Healthcare is changing, thanks to telehealth technologies. You can find out more about telehealth at Concise Recovery.
Resources
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/telehealth/art-20044878
- https://evisit.com/resources/what-is-the-difference-between-telemedicine-telecare-and-telehealth/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/migraine/virtual-appointments-and-telehealth-for-migraine#do-you-need-to-see-a-doctor
- https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-021-04891-5
- https://ibcces.org/blog/2020/09/04/telehealth-important-mental-health/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/telemedicine-for-type-2-diabetes-accessing-health-care-at-a-distance