Healthcare professionals across the U.S. are raving about telemedicine. Many see it as a critical strategy for telehealth systems, aiming to provide the best patient care.
Telemedicine is two-way communication between the doctor and patient, using state-of-the-art audio and video technology. With the aid of the latest telemedicine software, telehealth has shown excellent potential to overcome barriers to healthcare services. It has relatively curtailed the distance between patient and healthcare provider and scaled-down the fragmentation of care due to time gaps between each appointment.
Here are a few potential ways a telemedicine program can significantly improve telehealth systems.
Effectively Reduces Hospital Readmission Rates
Any healthcare provider will be aware of the high price they have to pay due to higher readmission rates. Increased rates have two implications. There will be a financial penalty and patient-care mismanagement.
The latest telemedicine programs maintain these readmission rates at nominal levels. With the telemedicine solutions, it is easier for patients to follow-up with their queries. Software solutions increase the opportunity to catch and prevent health problems before they become another expensive penalty.
Improves Post-operation Follow-ups
After any operation, it is difficult for a doctor to do a spot check of a surgical wound within a short duration. Moreover, in the case of an in-person appointment, it usually takes longer. It leads to surgeons spending less time in the OR.
With telemedicine programs, surgeons can conduct the post-operation follow-ups, without wasting time in waiting for the patients to come in person. Over a video call, the doctor can do a spot check and e-prescribe any needed antibiotics with the patient not having to leave their home.
Increases Access to Specialty Care
There are mostly two aspects here.
Firstly, the distance between specialists and patients can restrict access to specialty care. Secondly, it is expensive to maintain a fully staffed hospital running with access to all specialties. The contemporary telemedicine software efficiently helps to mitigate both these concerns.
They overcome the geographic barriers to speciality healthcare, providing benefits for patients in remote locations. And the healthcare facilities can now hire remote specialists and extend their speciality care programs.
Improves Quality of Healthcare
Recent studies show that patients with telemedicine solutions had about 40% fewer hospital admissions and 60% chances of spending fewer days in the hospital.
The primary reason to adopt telemedicine programs is to improve overall healthcare. These software solutions allow patients to virtually interact with their doctors, ask relevant questions, and prevent avoidable hospital visits. Such measures surely improve the quality of care outcomes, thus reducing the readmission rates.
Improves Patient Satisfaction and Engagement
With telemedicine programs, patients can easily engage with their specialists, enabling flexible and real-time care at a convenient time. The intuitive cloud software available to both the doctors and patients negates any requirement for downloads. The software packages efficiently run without any glitches on patient-owned devices, thus saving precious time during the treatment process.
There are nearly 200 active telehealth networks in the U.S. The growth of the health sector is said to reach almost $95 billion in value by 2026. Telemedicine is here to stay, as more patients and healthcare professionals are adopting state-of-the-art telehealth practices for better care outcomes.