Telehealth: Revolutionizing Healthcare
For many patients, visits to their doctor can be time-consuming, stressful and expensive. Telehealth enables patients to access care without leaving home – saving both time and money! In addition, seeing specialists directly enhances care quality while saving travel costs. Telemedicine has revolutionised medical industry practices such as surgeries, schooling and more by streamlining processes.
Virtual care is rapidly revolutionizing how we think about health, and is here to stay. No longer just an alternative to in-person appointments, telehealth has become an invaluable asset in treating all sorts of conditions–from COVID-19 to chronic illnesses. It plays an integral part of how healthcare services are provided today.
With technological advancements, telehealth allows us to meet with doctors over the Internet from the comfort of our own homes. Providers can see and hear patients speak, ensuring accurate symptoms communication. Telehealth tools also streamline administrative tasks, giving more time for clinicians to focus on treating patients directly.
Telehealth was widely employed during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide treatment services for both hospitalized patients and homebound ones, and was key for healthcare systems to maintain operations and care delivery during a time of crisis. Telehealth usage increased considerably during and post-pandemic levels of usage were often higher than pre-pandemic ones.
One factor behind this increase was patients’ ability to bypass costly and risky trips to emergency rooms by meeting with their doctors over the phone or videoconferencing software instead. Telehealth allowed many individuals to stay in the safety of their own homes while still meeting with medical providers as needed, saving both time and equipment necessary for travel.
Historically, the Congressional Budget Office has predicted that expanding telehealth will drive up overall healthcare spending; however, its precise effects depend on both a patient’s clinical condition and how their provider uses virtual care services. An evaluation of multi-payer claims data between January 2019 and December 2020 found that when receiving both in-person care as well as virtual care visits for an issue at once, virtual care may often replace some physical visits while it may add something additional altogether.
Telehealth is quickly expanding, and with its advantages over traditional care methods it could dramatically change the future of medicine. Pearl and Wayling give readers insider perspectives from two leading telehealth providers: Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain Healthcare – providing insider accounts of how these organizations use telehealth to reduce costly and unnecessary trips to emergency rooms, address chronic disease crises such as America’s, close specialty care gaps and make healthcare more affordable overall. They also reveal how these organizations have transitioned toward fully telehealth-driven systems by harnessing employer/consumer power as well as designing reimbursement/care models within healthcare organizations and healthcare institutions alike.