Telehealth is a considerable boon to physicians for a variety of reasons. It can free up time you'd otherwise spend on administrative tasks, make patient billing easier, and increase revenue streams. These are a few of telehealth's many benefits to doctors.
You don't overhaul your business and only implement virtual visits to benefit yourself, virtual visits are focused on the patient to improve their experience and outcomes. Fortunately, telehealth can bring a great deal of improvement to the patient side of medical care. With over 80% of the country reporting that they use virtual visits at one point or another, telehealth is here to stay and is continuously improving.
Here are some of the most significant ways that telehealth benefits patients, making the use of a digital model engaging in virtual visits an obvious choice for them.
1. Telehealth reduces the spread of contagious disease
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear how instrumental the telehealth model is in suppressing the spread of infectious diseases. Simply avoiding going to the doctor or hospital when you're contagious — or when you're worried about being infected — can make adherence to medical visits significantly higher.
2. Telehealth is ideal for chronic pain & chronic condition patients
For those who have chronic conditions — especially pain that restricts their movement — telehealth visits are ideal. If a patient has to drive or take public transportation, the patient may be physically and mentally exhausted after the visit because of pain and mobility issues getting to/from their appointment. Studies also indicate that people who have chronic care conditions requiring regular doctor visits are more likely to adhere to appointment schedules if they don't have to physically go to their doctor's office.
If a patient needs to have a checkup with you for prescription alteration and observation, it's far easier to do remotely. They can also take vitals and report them remotely with remote patient monitoring devices. Virtual visits are most convenient for patients with challenges getting to the office.
3. Telehealth is excellent for rural and elderly patients
Due to age, location, or finances, patients with mobility issues will find that remote visits are a great solution. For an elderly patient who might have to take several buses or trains in a large city, avoiding all of that hassle can save them hours out of their day. Additionally, virtual visits can save a long drive for patients outside of a major city, especially in inclement weather.
4. Virtual urgent care is a lifesaver for families
If their child wakes up vomiting or with a fever or sustains a sports injury, parents who want to speak with a physician immediately appreciate telehealth. Remote urgent care can help them get the diagnosis and medicine they need without a trip to the doctor’s office. This is especially true for sinus infections or stomach bugs, where the solution is antibiotics or an anticholinergic that can be easily prescribed remotely.
5. AI intake saves time
The process of intake in the office, signing forms, and then waiting is tedious, and most patients consider it the worst part of a doctor's visit. Telehealth intake helps you diagnose your patients remotely, gets them registered, and allows them to wait in the comfort of their homes rather than in a cramped office. In general, it's highly preferable to in-office waiting rooms and intake processes, especially since digital copies of pertinent financial or insurance records are uploaded and efficiently stored.
6. Getting prescriptions and referrals is painless
A platform like ViTel helps your office interface with specialists and pharmacies for real-time prescriptions and fast referrals. Instead of waiting hours for a prescription to be phoned in and filled, patients who use telehealth services find their medicine is ready significantly faster. If your telehealth network has specialists on board, you'll often find your patients can get seen much more quickly than in a traditional referral method. It saves you and your patients a lot of time and frustration.
Telehealth is fantastic for you and your patients
Telehealth is the future, and the future is now. More doctors are turning to virtual visits than ever before, which means that telehealth platforms need to improve constantly to keep up with demand.
Everything from billing to administrative tasks, employment, credentialing, and HIPAA-compliant patient record-keeping and messaging is at your fingertips when you partner with ViTel. Contact us today for a free demo and see the difference telehealth with ViTel can make for you and your patients.
