The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) virus is the deadliest pandemic we have ever faced. The spread of this virus was so aggressive and it’s resulting death toll so large that it ended up crippling our economy and changing our lifestyle. Every country in the world has halted production resulting in significant dip in the market. Governments across the world have declared national emergency and have enacted emergency laws, to help curb the spread of the virus. People have been forced into home quarantine and are no longer allowed to leave their places of residence bar an emergency.
Despite all these measures, the Coronavirus has been wreaking absolute havoc. The hospital systems & staff are impossibly overloaded, resulting in hospital resources being stretched too thin. This dire situation is made furthermore hopeless because of mass hysteria. Panic is unavoidable during any crisis; this has made several people seek out doctors’ aid for just about anything. The virus has gotten people so far on the edge right now, that a single sneeze is enough to set the sirens going in people’s heads. Panicked people are finding it increasingly harder to consult their physicians. Restricted patient access & the rising number of walk-in patients due to this have severely compounded the situation. In order to get a better handle on this extremely dire situation and to curb the spread of infection, hospitals have started to implement Telehealth services & telemedicine services & systems.
Telehealth/telemedicine can be defined as a system that can effectively distribute healthcare services through the use of telecommunication technologies. In simpler terms, it enables easier healthcare access for patients through the use of their communication devices (mobiles/pads/laptops/other PDAs). Now, doctors can easily diagnose your illness & more importantly ease your fears, without you having to risk infection from the waiting room.
Implementing telehealth/telemedicine services can :-
Ease the workload of hospitals & healthcare organizations
Due to the rise in the number of infected people and shortage of resources, doctors are advising people not to rush to the hospital immediately if they have flu-like symptoms. Instead they are asking people to self-monitor for fourteen days and then come to the hospital if they haven’t gotten better. But understandably people tend to panic during a deadly pandemic and this makes them rush to nearby clinics/hospitals to get themselves checked or at least for the professional reassurance that what they have is just a flu. Other than the fact that this simply overtaxes the already stretched hospital staff, there is an additional danger of the virus spreading due to hospital crowding. But, with the help of telehealth this can be avoided. All a person needs to do is access their PDAs and they can contact their provider and patients can get real time diagnosis without ever having to compromise on safety. It also allows doctors and other clinical staff to concentrate on the more emergency cases.
Establish a strong channel of communication between doctors & their community
Currently rumors are rampant, especially with the rise of fake news and trolls, it’s hard to believe the information that is being provided to us. Sometimes matters are highly understated and at times they are grossly exaggerated. But through implementing telemedicine we can establish a strong unbiased channel of communication that actually provides the true information right from the source itself instead of it being altered due to rumors. It provides an access to providers to be constantly in touch with the community and allows them to keep the patients aware of just how dire the situation. Safety instructions and the requisite information can easily reach people directly from the original source, the health care professionals. Telehealth acts as the perfect bridge of communication.
Provide effortless healthcare access to a wider range of patients
With transportation and other necessary facilities being barred to prevent crowding, and with having to stay at home to prevent the spread of infection, it gets really hard for a patient to get the necessary treatment. By implementing telehealth, the providers and patients are always able to get in touch the easiest way possible. This is not just advantageous during times of crisis, but, during other times as well. Older patients find it difficult to travel all the way to the doctor’s office to get their prescriptions filled, working people find it difficult to get themselves checked due to time constraints and all other cases where patients find it difficult to access basic healthcare can easily attain it through telehealth.
Allow doctors to work from home
Due to the recent pandemic, all industries have closed down regular production and have either provided their employees with paid leave or have implemented the practice of work from home. It seems that only doctors and other healthcare professionals are struck having to face the pandemic head on. WIth dwindling supplies and quickly disappearing resources, doctors face the grim situation of having to treat patients without proper protection. This is why telehealth systems are so important. It provides the option of work from home for doctors. Through telemedicine physicians can diagnose and treat patients from their home. Telehealth enables health systems & providers to maintain the same quality of treatment to their patients, without jeopardizing doctor’s safety.
Become the ultimate aid for doctors & can guarantee provider satisfaction
Rightfully, the providers are now solely concentrated on treating COVID-19 patients and ensuring that the virus does not spread. However, this means that they can no longer accord the same kind of care they used to provide their other patients. After implementing telemedicine, they will be able to easily connect with their patients, keep in touch and easily track their recovery. They are now provided with an easily accessible centralized system that can live track all their patients. In cases of patients that require continuous care for the same diagnosis, doctors can use telehealth to automate their treatment plan and in cases where patients just require a simple prescription filled or other simple diagnosis the doctors can easily track and ensure the right treatment.
Telehealth/Telemedicine is the future for streamlined and optimized healthcare access & when this system was tested during the current pandemic it has proven to be the most valuable tool for providers and patients. Let us adopt this advantageous system more aggressively across all health systems, hospitals & clinics. We at BillingParadise and our clients especially can attest to the fact that telemedicine systems are a must have contingency during a crisis and during more normal times it definitely benefits the community as a whole.
