How Telehealth Services Can Improve Patient Outcomes

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How Telehealth Services Can Improve Patient
Outcomes
Its a safe bet that every healthcare provider
wants to know how to improve patient care while
improving patient outcomes. Today, thanks largely
to the COVID-19 pandemic, providers have been
using a relatively new digital patient engagement
tool to do that Telehealth, also called
telemedicine, eHealth, and virtual
healthcare. While telehealth has been used for
decades in clinical settings, it really caught
fire during the pandemic. Social distancing,
quarantines and the publics fear of exposure led
to increased interest in and demand for
telehealth services among consumers. According to
McKinsey Company, in 2021 55 percent of
patients said they were more satisfied with
telehealth/virtual care visits than with
in-person appointments. Providers are also
looking to introduce patient telehealth because
of the many advantages it offers. These include
increased revenue, greater scheduling
flexibility, lower costs, and better work/life
balance. But these considerations matter only if
they result in improved patient outcomes that
produce healthy and happy patients. Fortunately,
thats exactly what telehealth can achieve. How
Do Providers Use Digital Patient Engagement to
Improve Patient Outcomes? Providers are using
telehealth digital patient engagement in several
ways to help improve patient outcomes,
including Chronic Condition Management According
to the National Health Council, approximately
157 million
Americans had chronic health conditions in 2020,
which represents
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nearly half of our total population. Telehealth
can reduce the number of in-person office visits
for chronically ill patients, while increasing
the chances that they will comply with their
treatment plans. Follow-up Appointments Provider
s see follow-up visits as an important way to
confirm that they have made the right diagnoses
and developed the best treatment plans for their
patients. But patients dont always keep
follow-up appointments due to the cost and
difficulty of getting to the doctors
office. Telehealths video conferencing makes it
easy for patients to comply with follow-up
appointments, which increases the odds that their
treatment will be successful. Medication
Management Patients may be reluctant to schedule
in-person visits to discuss potential side
effects and concerns about efficacy. Instead of
suffering in silence from side effects, or
stopping their meds entirely, they can take
advantage of remote telehealth visits to consult
with their providers. Patient outcomes can often
be improved when providers can change their
dosage or medications in a timely way. Telehealth
lets patients renew their prescriptions without
having to call or visit their providers in
person. Mental Health Treatment By removing
barriers to access, allowing fewer providers to
see more patients, and eliminating patients
privacy concerns, telehealth has proven to be
safe and effective for treating anxiety,
depression, PTSD, and other mental health
conditions. Patients who are reluctant or
unwilling to seek mental health treatment in
person may find it less threatening and more
comfortable to be treated virtually via video
teleconferencing.
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Follow-up After Hospitalization Telehealth is
ideally suited to improving patient outcomes
after hospitalization by allowing for easier
follow-up care. Providers can assess the
patients condition and response to treatment
virtually. This allows them to intervene on
behalf of their patients before costly hospital
readmissions become necessary. Imaging and Lab
Test Results Telehealth allows providers to
review patients diagnostic imaging and lab test
results to help them understand exactly what
those tests have revealed and what action they
need to take. Its not always possible or
necessary for a patient to visit the providers
office simply to review their test results. Doing
so by telephone is often inadequate for
communicating important diagnostic information.
Plus, most of test review phone calls are not
reimbursable for the provider. By giving the
patient and provider face-to-face engagement,
telehealth can improve the patients
understanding, deepen the patient-provider
relationship, and allow reimbursement for the
providers time. How Can Telehealth Improve
Patient Outcomes? When it comes to questions
about how to improve patient care and patient
outcomes, telehealth delivers on several fronts,
including Removing Barriers to
Treatment Consider all the issues that may keep
patients from getting the care they need. These
include transportation costs and commuting time,
missed time from work, which can result in
reduced pay for some patients, the need for child
or elder care, and the general inconvenience of
office visits. These barriers can keep patients
from getting to the providers office and patient
no-shows or last-minute cancellations can be
costly to
providers. Telehealth removes these obstacles. It
lets providers see
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patients from distant locations and patients
benefit from valuable face- to-face interactions
with their providers. Telehealth can eliminate
the waste associated with office visits while
improving efficiency for providers. Increasing
Patient-Provider Face Time By removing the busy
medical office environment from the healthcare
equation, telehealth allows patients and
providers to focus more comprehensively on
present health concerns. They can devote more
face-to-face time to discussing the patients
concerns or complaints without the usual office
distractions. Telehealth is also far more
effective than telephone consults for
communicating complex health information and
conveying the providers empathy and
understanding. This can lead to increased trust
from patients. Improving Treatment Plans There
are times when treatment plans involve steps that
dont naturally make sense in an in-person office
setting. For example, managing patient
medications and performing diagnostic test
reviews can more easily be done privately and
virtually. Telehealth gives providers a broader
range of care options without placing added costs
or burdens on their busy medical offices.
Telehealth promotes improved continuity of care,
while decreasing the costs of care and improving
patient compliance and overall clinical
outcomes. Reducing Exposure to Other Patients
and Illnesses Its very difficult to improve
health outcomes when patients are asked to sit in
busy waiting rooms full of sick patients.
Whenever patients share the same space, they are
at risk of airborne illnesses. On the flip side,
telehealth allows potentially contagious people
to get the care they need
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without exposing others. It prevents patients who
dont have viruses or infectious diseases from
getting them. Thats great news for patients and
providers. How to Improve Telehealth If your
practice has already committed to providing
telehealth services, you may be wondering how to
improve telehealth engagement among your
patients. The key to doing this successfully is
patient engagement marketing. Patient engagement
marketing starts in your office and on your
website, where you should prominently feature
announcements and details about your telehealth
program. Consider promoting it through your
practice blogs, promotional emails, and social
media messages. Tell patients and prospects how
they can save time and money and avoid the risks
of exposure to viruses and other sick patients by
accessing your telehealth program in the comfort
and privacy of their own homes. If you need help
with patient engagement marketing for your
telehealth program, talk to a marketing expert or
a healthcare marketing agency.