Telemedicine enables doctors to meet patients remotely through video conference or telephone. This practice has been around for a long time but due to the recent outbreak of covid 19, telemedicine has gained popularity and was used widely around the world.
Advancements in the technology sector and changes in insurance reimbursements have further helped in the worldwide acceptance of telemedicine. Without them, doctors might not have been able to connect with the patients so easily, especially during the lockdowns.
As telemedicine started becoming a popular practice during the pandemic, doctors and patients around the world grew more comfortable connecting virtually. If implemented properly, telemedicine can provide a large array of advantages. Let us discuss all the possible benefits of telemedicine in this blog.
Benefits of Telemedicine
1. Comfort and Convenience
The general norm of getting treated by doctors was to pay a visit to their hospitals or clinics. Sometimes it can be challenging to commute to the clinic and then you have to wait there along with other sick patients which is convenient. Implementing telemedicine services allows you to meet your doctor virtually. Virtual visits are easy to schedule even if either doctor or patient is busy.
2. Control of Infectious Illness
When there is an outbreak of highly infectious and dangerous diseases such as Covid-19, applying telehealth services seems to be the best available option to prevent the virus from spreading further. Doctors can prescreen the patients for possible infections. The fewer sick people who come to the clinic, the less chance of people getting infections from each other. This less exposure to germs can help those patients who are immunocompromised, chronically ill, pregnant, or elderly.
3. Better Assessment
Practicing telemedicine can help specialty practitioners in checking out their home environment. For example, an allergist can find clues to the cause of allergies by analyzing your surroundings. Therapists and doctors can assess your surroundings as well as how you take care of yourself at home when you are in a virtual meeting. Telemedicine can be extremely helpful for patients that are seeking mental health assessment and counseling.
4. Family Connections
It is always necessary to visit your doctor with a family member or a loved one that can help you provide relevant information, take notes on the doctor’s advice and ask questions. Telehealth software can help you to loop that person in on the virtual meeting with the doctor even if they are not living with you in the same house, city, or even the country.
5. Primary Care and Chronic Condition Management
Regular visits are necessary for those primary care practitioners who specialize in family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine. This also proves to be very beneficial if anyone from your family is suffering from any type of chronic disease. People with chronic diseases are sometimes treated at home with at-home monitoring tools. These tools are constantly transmitting teh readings to the healthcare professionals. In the case of potential emergencies, worsening health, or even new symptoms, the tool can alert healthcare providers for immediate intervention. This proves to be lifesaving.
Using telemedicine, you can connect with your doctor easily. Now, hospitals and clinics have set up some systems that allow you to get an appointment with your healthcare practitioner which saves a lot of time.
6. Easy access to specialists
Not everyone knows a doctor that they can call in their time of need. Therefore, many hospitals and online medical portals provide access to all types of specialists through telemedicine.
Also, the rural areas mostly don’t have quick access to healthcare services. Their nearest medical facility is sometimes a few miles away. In such cases, providing telemedicine can be a quick and effective solution for many patients.
This not only saves time but also keeps people off the roads in times when the conditions are not favorable for driving, i.e. in times of hailstorms, snowstorms, etc. This is also a helpful way to treat patients that need urgent attention.
7. Lower cost
The fees of the specialist practitioners seem very costly even if you have health insurance. A typical telemedicine appointment will cost much less in comparison to in-person visits. And many hospitals and clinics offer cash-pay telemedicine and that too without any referrals or health insurance. This certainly also lowers the barrier to access to good healthcare and reduces any kind of out-of-pocket costs.
8. Middle-of-the-night care for babies and children
Babies tend to get sick in the middle of the night. Instead of searching haphazardly on the net for the nearest doctor, parents can use telehealth services to quickly connect to a specialist who can provide a better diagnosis and a prescription.
9. No need for childcare
In these cases, when parents get sick, the child has to be taken away to child care. So that the child doesn’t have to visit the hospitals to avoid getting infected with any kind of pathogens. But the childcare costs can be eliminated if you use telehealth services.
10. Doctors get to stay home too
In the time of the pandemic, when everything was on lockdown, the primary care clinics also had to either close off or reduce their working hours. In such times, virtual private networks have allowed doctors and therapists to treat their patients from the safety of their homes or offices. Treating patients remotely has also helped ward off the dangers of spreading coronavirus. This has also helped doctors cut down their costs.
11. Insurance reimbursement
No matter where the patient or the healthcare provider is, Medicare and health insurance providers are now allowing doctors and therapists to bill for their telehealth services. However, sometimes the laws of the state vary from the insurance plans to make sure you have checked your policy requirements and restrictions before you set an appointment for a telemedicine service.
12. Emergency psychiatric and physical care
People with healthcare emergencies can quickly get access to healthcare professionals. Many people who need mental healthcare services including the ones who are experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression for a long time and the ones who are prone to self-harm can use telemedicine to virtually meet their therapists at any time.
Additionally, physical therapists can also supervise their patients doing exercise and other therapies in their homes with the help of telehealth services.
The bottom line
Telehealth services have been used for a while now. But due to the recent pandemic of covid-19, it has become increasingly popular. Indeed, telemedicine can not be as effective as face-to-face appointments but it serves as the best alternative and an important addition to patient care.
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