Posts

Can a Doctor Really Diagnose Over Zoom?

/0 Comments/in /by
Is zooming your doctor the new normal?

Imagine you’re in quarantine, beginning to feel early symptoms that align with Coronavirus, yet to keep others safe you feel you need to stay home. The symptoms begin to worsen, but you still don’t want to risk others safety by leaving the house. How can you ensure you will be okay without leaving the house? Telehealth services might be your saving grace. This begs the question, can a doctor really diagnose over Zoom?

The American Medical Association is working to maximize telemedicine service options in order to revolutionize healthcare– especially because COVID-19 is highly contagious. Not only does telemedicine help keep potential Coronavirus carriers quarantined, but it also helps those who have had non-urgent medical care postponed due to the pandemic. 

These services can be extremely beneficial for those who still need to go to work, or those who have to take care of their children at home. With children home from school, it can be more challenging to leave them home with a sitter, so what does that mean if you have to go to the doctor? Well, you can just hop on a Zoom call during their nap and get the same results as going to the doctor!

So how exactly does telemedicine work?

Drs. Francavilla Brown and Boyd told AMA that telemedicine “is easier than people think it is to incorporate into a practice.” 

With technological advancements typically come progress and challenges. Physicians who have tried implementing telemedicine have identified these challenges, and have come up with a few solutions. 

One challenge is patients may not have a good signal to support their doctor’s visit. Trouble with a weak signal may make the appointment longer, or impossible for someone who really needs it. Another challenge physicians have identified is booking appointments to be a televisit for doctor’s offices. The patient must call into the office to ensure their appointment is virtual. 

While telehealth services may not be the best option for detecting major issues, it has been great for reassessing and monitoring patients who have known problems. It can also be used to adjust medications, answer questions, and share information. Patients in areas where medical resources are limited also benefit greatly from these services. 

These services also help people avoid unnecessary hospital visits, which helps to give advice at a distance, save time, and reduce costs for both patients and doctors. Not only will it help avoid hospital visits when they aren’t necessary, but it will also give patients in the hospital the ability to discharge sooner by monitoring their vitals with telemedicine.

Zooming your doctor may begin to become the new normal in a post-COVID world. At SBMA, we offer telemedicine services at competitive prices. Contact us to learn more about how our benefit plans with telemedicine services today!

Can a doctor really diagnose over zoom?

Virtual Health is Saving Lives During Coronavirus

/0 Comments/in /by

How Virtual Health Services are Saving Lives During the Coronavirus Crisis

With the outbreak of COVID-19 healthcare workers and providers have had to come up with better ways to diagnose and treat patients. The number of patients who need to be seen for health issues both related to and peripheral to the coronavirus has put a strain on our hospitals.  It is in this environment that Telemedicine has found its spotlight. Telemedicine or Virtual Health Care is the practice of performing virtual appointments and check-ups for patients. Especially now, this keeps both patients and healthcare workers safe while continuing to provide care for those in need. This is only the beginning of how virtual health is saving lives during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Virtual healthcare has slowly been taking hold as more and more of the norm in recent years. The cost savings alone make virtual care the right choice for many doctors, hospitals, and patients.  $7 billion of physicians’ time can be saved by switching in-person visits to virtual appointments.

These days, in quarantine, many people need the ability to have their doctor’s appointments at home. Even during the best of times, for many, the convenience is key to successful follow up appointments and check-ins.  Telemedicine allows for a safe environment to ask questions, get simple diagnoses and to get prescriptions from your doctor while remaining at home.  

Doctors around the country have implemented telemedicine and online appointments to help keep all patients safe from COVID-19. Patients with a smartphone or computer can visit a provider in a secure network. Dr. Chris Davis, Medical Director for UCHealth’s Virtual Urgent Care says, “COVID-19 is quite infectious, so if you can stay home and get medical advice, that gives you two advantages. First, if you’re sick, you’re not going to be bringing your illness into a doctor’s office or a hospital. Second, you won’t be exposed to other patients.”

These changes to what we have thought of as normal healthcare have given people affordable, manageable options to care for themselves and others throughout this uncertain time. As we work to navigate COVID-19, the best thing we can do is keep ourselves and others safe from harm by ensuring we do everything we can to stop the spread.

Virtual Care and the Telemedicine Revolution

/0 Comments/in /by

During this time of uncertainty, there has been an increase in consumer demand for virtual healthcare services, which has put added pressure on providers and payers to expand delivery options for on-demand health services.

A survey from Accenture, which included 1,501 consumers who answered questions online, found that most people are willing to utilize virtual healthcare services. For the 20% of respondents who had received care virtually, the reasons they cited most often for seeking virtual care are:

  • Greater convenience than traditional in-person healthcare services (37%)
  • Familiarity using technology to manage their health (34%)
  • Curiosity to try virtual health (34%)

Consumers said they would be more likely to “try virtual” if encouraged by a physician or familiar healthcare provider.
According to the research, today’s consumers are demanding a combination of in-person and virtual health services. More than 75% of those surveyed said they would be interested in receiving healthcare virtually some or most of the time.

What is Virtual Health?

Virtual health includes health care innovations like virtual appointment kiosks and portals, remote consultations, and electronic personal health records. These components work together to allow for easier access to care, such as virtual wellness coaching, remote monitoring, video visits, and online health chats, among several other benefits that we will examine more closely below.
Virtual health combines clinical care and professional collaboration through telemedicine, telehealth, and collaboration at-a-distance to connect clinicians, patients, care teams, and health professionals to provide health services, support patient self-management, and coordinate care across the care continuum.
Specific to physician-patient encounters, virtual health enables live and asynchronous clinical interactions, clinical practice, and patient management supported by a wide range of communication, collaboration, and cognitive computing technologies along with digital devices and data.


Benefits of Virtual Health and Telemedicine

As you can see, there are many benefits of offering Virtual Health. For patients and medical practices, the use of telemedicine technology allows patients to receive follow up care and chronic illness management from their own home on the devices they already own and use. This follow-up care is especially crucial for those who are homebound or have difficulty arranging travel.
For healthier patients, it reduces travel time and costs and requires less time away from work. As an added benefit, patients do not have exposure to other potentially contagious patients. In short, telemedicine removes many of the barriers preventing people from actively managing their health.

Here are the main benefits for most patients:

Improved Access – Not only does telemedicine improve access to patients, but it also allows physicians and health facilities to expand their reach beyond their own offices. Telemedicine has a unique capacity to increase service to millions of new patients.

Cost Efficiencies – Telemedicine has been shown to reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times, and fewer or shorter hospital stays.

Improved Quality – Studies have consistently shown that the quality of healthcare services delivered via telemedicine are as good those given in traditional in-person consultations.

Virtual Health Care technology is excellent for providers as well. It can help extend clinical services to reach more patients efficiently and profitably. It helps improve health outcomes by increasing patient compliance with follow up and chronic illness management. Virtual Health Care strengthens patient relationships without putting additional strain on the medical staff.
There are significant benefits to medical practice, as well. By utilizing virtual health, your practice can expand access to care. It improves clinical workflows by helping your staff capture each patient’s reason for the call or visit quickly, prioritize care delivery, suggest the best treatment guidelines, and identify additional information resources. Virtual health care can also support communication along the care continuum.

What does this mean for my practice?

Technology is providing new methods to assist your clients by responding to the need for better communication. It’s also creating a competitive landscape the medical field has never seen before. Embracing this new trend will enable you to maintain your patients for years to come.

Contact SBMA for more information on employee benefits packages that include virtual health services!