Main Benefits of Telehealth for Home Health Therapy. All detail about Limitations, Technical Training & Equipment, and Telehealth services Use. The implementation of telehealth from home health therapy has accelerated in recent years, with expected revenue to rise from $628.3 million to $2.4 billion as per the S&P Global study. There are many reasons behind this significant rise of telehealth therapy.
Main Benefits of Telehealth for Home Health Therapy
Telehealth therapy services have helped the public health mitigation strategies during the COVID 19 pandemic by increasing social distancing. These services are a much safer option for health care providers as well as the patients by controlling infectious exposures. Implementing telehealth for home health therapy can minimize the pressure on healthcare systems by reducing the increase of patient demand on facilities and curtail the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by healthcare providers. Let us discuss some of the key benefits and potential use cases of telehealth for home health therapy.Telehealth services Uses:
- Telehealth services help in screening patients who may have symptoms of COVID-19 and route to the right team for further treatment.
- Deliver urgent healthcare with lower risk to the non-COVID-19 circumstances. Find out people who might need additional medical care or assessment; and then direct them to the right medical department for faster care solutions.
- Telehealth services can access the primary healthcare providers and experts comprising both mental; and behavioral health conditions, for smooth management of medication.
- Educate and train for effective patient support for handling chronic health conditions with prompt and ease. It also includes managing the weight of the patients and proper nutrition counseling.
- Take part in physical or occupational therapy; along with other models and follow a hybrid approach to deliver in-person care for optimal healthcare.
- Monitor the vital clinical signals of certain chronic medical conditions like blood pressure, blood glucose. Engage in inpatient case management who have complex assessment care, especially for those who live in rural areas and have limited mobility.
- Maintain a regular follow-up routine with patients after hospitalization and deliver advance care planning & counseling to patients and caregivers. It helps to document preferences if a life-threatening event happens or any kind of medical issue.
- Provide non-emergent care to the residents for long-duration care facilities. Also, train and educate the healthcare professionals via peer-to-peer professional medical consultations that are lacking in local or rural areas
How Telehealth for Home health therapy Helps Patients
Providing care in continuity as much as possible can avoid extra negative impacts from delayed preventive, chronic, or routine care. The remote access to healthcare services might result in the increased participation for those who are exposed medically or socially or who do not have access to providers. Having remote access to the services also helps to strengthen the patient-provider relationship when an in-person visit is not practically possible. Here are the practical ways how telehealth for home health helps patients.Telehealth for home health is more convenient for patients
Telehealth services are more accessible for patients, particularly in remote rural areas. However, No matter it is related to providing basic healthcare or allowing senior patients with mobility issues to see the doctor from home, telehealth is there to help. It has the potential to overcome the geographical barriers to access care access to the patients.Manage and Save Healthcare Costs
Millions of dollars are spent on healthcare every year across the globe. Implementing telehealth for home health therapy helps care providers not only to manage services smoothly; but also in reducing overall costs that are spent in reducing problems like medication non-adherence; ER visits that are not need and going for doctor visits more efficiently.Quick Access to Consults from Healthcare Experts
Implementing telehealth services for home health therapy, a medical practice or hospital system can instantly extend access to medical professionals and experts. In addition, It makes it very much convenient for the initial care providers to interact with the medical experts on the patient’s case; and for patients to visit the experts for complex forms of cancer, irrespective of their locations.Maximize Patient Engagement
In today’s time, every patient lives in a digital technology-dominated world where everything is so well connected. Also, they expect a superior healthcare experience. Telehealth services engage the patients by empowering them to immediately connect with the doctor as many times as needed in a convenient way. In a broader sense, it means more queries address by the doctors, and a stronger doctor-patient relationship is developing.Deliver Superior Quality of Care to Patients
With telehealth for home health therapy, it is very easy for healthcare providers to follow up with patients. It also ensures that everything goes well with the patients. No matter they use extensive remote patient monitoring systems to monitor the heart of the patients; or use digital communication methods such as video chat to identify the patient’s issues very fast; answer health-related queries after getting discharged from the hospital.Telehealth for Home Health Therapy Requires Technical Training & Equipment
There are many modern technology solutions and telehealth services generally need the right training and buying the equipment. It entirely depends upon the solution of how much you need to invest. Also, A comprehensive inpatient telehealth platform will be used by the preliminary care doctors; and consulting experts may need more specific training and buying telemedicine equipment and different health devices. Having a secure video chat app helps in terms of lesser training to the hospital staff; and also needs to buy a web camera. There are some telemedicine models that will reduce patient care continuity. Such companies that are consumer-facing provide big advantages of on-demand patient care. However, A patient who is not well can just log in online and request a visit with one of the telemedicine doctors and avail of the desired treatment. But the telehealth model is quite similar to the retail health movement that leads to coming down in the healthcare continuity. As the doctor does not know the medical history of the patient.Limitations of Telehealth Services
- Telehealth services have interstate licensure problems and other regulatory issues that may alter by the state.
- The circumstances in which physical visits to the patients are more right due to the urgency; the health conditions, or inability for a physical exam.
- The requirement to answer sensitive topics, in particular, if there is the discomfort of the patient or privacy concerns.
- At times there is limited access to technological devices such as smartphone; tablets, computers for a telehealth visit, or connectivity issues.
- The comfort level with technology for HCP and patients; and the cultural acceptance of making virtual visits by the medical professionals and patients.