Telehealth is a tool—a means—that emphasizes technology to deliver health care and other health-related activities remotely. It involves communication and education between clinicians and patients and providers. Though it does not expand the number of the provider workforce, it may assist boost effectiveness and extend the reach of current providers. Telehealth is not a service, but a means for providing health care services.
With its potential to overcome workforce and access constraints, Telehealth may minimize health inequalities for aging and underprivileged groups and lower patients’ expenditures and burdens related to missed work time, transport, and child care. Telehealth enables patients in remote regions to access more physicians and obtain treatment in their local communities instead of traveling vast distances. For example, patients may participate in video meetings with clinicians for acute and chronic issues.
The benefits of remote patient monitoring or Telehealth
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) or telehealth is a healthcare delivery strategy that helps patients, clinicians, caregivers, and the healthcare system as a whole, by utilizing technology improvements to collect patient data outside of typical healthcare delivery locations.
From improving access to virtual treatment, more patient-provider contact options, and enhanced patient engagement in self-management to minimizing COVID-19 spread and the overall total cost of care, there are many key advantages to consider, as described below.
- It helps patients better manage their health and follow treatment plans by providing more data-driven clinical decisions.
- Reduce the cost of healthcare for payers as well as providers
- Boosts net patient revenue
- Reduces patient expenditures and enhances job efficiency
- Improves access to care
- It enhances patient involvement, improves clinical staff efficiency, and combats a staffing shortage.
- Prevents the transmission of infectious illnesses and Hospital-Acquired Infections
- Boosts caregiver connectedness and engagement in care
- Enhances the pleasure and experience of patients
- Expands referral possibilities and boosts retention
- Enhances the interaction between the doctor and the patient
Challenges to rural care delivery
A sad aspect of living in distant, rural places is that rural healthcare institutions typically lack the finances to engage highly competent healthcare personnel and purchase more commonly available tools in metropolitan healthcare facilities.
To enhance patient care in rural regions, nurse practitioners must educate the patient on the best methods they may use to maintain their health while addressing the following obstructions.
- Shortage of care providers
- Inadequate knowledge of health concerns
- Social stigma and privacy
- Poor or no health care coverage
Telehealth is an excellent way to start a practice in remote areas
Although it is peaking in development today, Telehealth began expanding half a century ago, not only as far as video contacting an out-of-town patient. Government authorities and corporate groups have invested in telemedicine to expand healthcare coverage to rural regions and astronauts.
Reducing readmissions. Preventive treatment is the main contributor to preventing readmissions. Telehealth for remote patients enables them to check in with doctors for follow-ups without unplanned medical treatment. It prevents circumstances from progressing into more dangerous problems. Aftercare at home is also challenging to handle for patients. However, HIPAA-compliant consultation with platforms lets nurses and doctors check in on released patients to follow up on their aftercare, averting an eventual journey back to the hospital or a flare-up of illness symptoms.
Reach the distant and underserved
People who have worked and lived in rural places must travel substantially to access specialist treatment and frequently cannot seek prompt care in extreme instances. Those in underprivileged locations typically do not have a stable means of transportation, which restricts their clinical exposure substantially. Seeing doctors virtually from home may assist those living in rural regions, resulting in a high patient satisfaction rating. Telehealth providers have helped hospitals and clinics in remote regions go ahead. Providing underprivileged and chronically sick people a trustworthy source of treatment; is the job telemedicine has embraced in stride.
Telehealth can improve medication management.
Telehealth delivers various essential services to patients in rural and urban settings. It includes aiding with drug management. It’s believed that half of the individuals taking drugs in the US aren’t following doctors’ recommendations, sending the nation’s healthcare expenditure higher by around $310 billion in needless spending and $100 billion in preventable hospitalizations. The issue is serious for individuals taking many medications: the top 1 percent of high-acuity chronic illness patients account for 23 percent of that healthcare expense, or nearly $107,000 per patient. Healthcare authorities hope a digital health platform that oversees drug adherence at home and keeps care professionals informed on those patients would cut those expenses and enhance overall patient health.
Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) via Telehealth is achievable with adequate internet connections and video capabilities. With experience and concentration, it’s feasible to pick up on non-verbal signs via telemedicine. You can still see their faces and body language. You can detect when a patient is uncomfortable or disturbed by anything. You may notice that if they’re not fulfilling their treatment objectives. There are a few instances of non-verbal signs; one is that patients could start squirming back and forth in their chairs when they are uncomfortable. Some techniques ensure you receive the most accurate responses to your queries.
Patients should be given open-ended questions rather than basic “yes” or “no” queries. For example, asking a nurse and a patient what the patient’s medication list is can offer conflicting replies, which must be rectified. You need to know if the patient is genuinely taking what’s on that pharmaceutical list. You may inquire how many doses they’ve missed in the last month, and they might not necessarily be correct when they initially respond. Then, you may go more particular with follow-up questions; how many they’ve missed in the prior week, two weeks, etc. Finally, if they’re not taking their prescriptions as recommended, you might inquire about side effects and maybe list any that could be happening.
Working with a patient to build a plan that successfully addresses their disease while reducing undesired side effects and interactions is only achievable with a thorough grasp of the hurdles a patient encounters when taking their meds. It needs the capacity to interpret their non-verbal signs; happily, this can be done if video conversations function, making CMM a possible service to deliver via Telehealth.
What are the possible solutions to these challenges?
The degree to which people follow their healthcare provider’s prescription instructions for drug administration is known as medication adherence. It includes remembering to fill prescriptions, taking medicine as prescribed, and following instructions to the letter.
Some solutions that can help in this matter:
- Improve the experience for the patient
The use of flexible delivery and mail options, notifications to notify patients when their drugs are running low, and 90-day refills may all help to enhance adherence. In addition, with patients growing increasingly comfortable with virtual care, there are technologies meant to make taking prescriptions a seamless part of a patient’s daily routine.
- Emphasize medication review and education
Before prescribing a drug, make careful to go through with the patient all of the advantages (as well as any possible adverse effects) of taking it precisely as directed. For openness and cooperation, it is a good idea to engage the patient’s loved ones or caregivers in the planning process, if possible. Telehealth is a terrific method to incorporate patients, carers, and physicians into this process rapidly and safely, assuring timely evaluation and continuing education.
- Leverage technology
Medical providers may employ technology to remind patients of their prescriptions and lifestyle regimen to promote adherence. By employing Telehealth, you may continually contact patients to engage them proactively should they have queries about drugs, skip doses or not renew prescriptions. Changing patient behavior and making them happy may be achieved via Telehealth engagement (virtual visits, medication reminder applications, remote patient monitoring equipment).