Telemedicine: What Patients Want
As the technology behind telemedicine improves, the idea of integrating telemedicine in everyday healthcare is becoming more popular amongst patients and providers both. This is more true of virtual visits done from the comfort of your home — also called Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) telemedicine — than anything else. For patients, DTC telemedicine services would provide a more convenient, cost-effective method of delivery, with a reduced wait time to connect to a care provider. For the care providers, DTC telemedicine services would allow for greater usage of time, the ability to treat more patients, and cut back on the expense of no-show appointments. In addition, DTC telemedicine would be a huge benefit for both parties in cases when a patient needs medical care but is unable to meet in-person to see a provider.
There are different options for patients when it comes to DTC telemedicine; the patient could choose to connect to his or her care provider directly, connect to another care provider from the same healthcare organization, or connect to a different care provider from a different healthcare organization. BioMed Central (BMC) Health Services Research conducted a survey to analyze how patients respond when presented with those options.
According to the survey, most patients are unaware of whether or not their care providers use telemedicine to conduct video visits. However, the survey results showed that a majority (51.9%) of respondents would be willing to try telemedicine with their care provider and 25.3% unwilling. Approximately 22.7% are listed as neither unwilling nor willing. Further results showed that the majority of patients would only be willing to try telemedicine with their current care provider versus a different provider. This is due to the existing relationship and familiarity that patients have with their care providers. It would be uncomfortable for the patient to see a care provider they have never met before over a telemedicine visit.
In today’s healthcare world, it is essential that practices offer a telemedicine option. More and more studies and surveys such as this one are being conducted showing that consumers want it and it helps providers in all aspects of care delivery. The research also shows that the more convenient, the better; patients want it in their home, with their doctor, and in a user-friendly way. While there are many options for providers when choosing a telemedicine service, SimpleVisit checks the boxes for all three with a unique service that connects patients to providers using the apps they are already familiar with (like FaceTime, Google Hangouts and Skype), and offers live Telemedicine Receptionists to help facilitate and, if necessary, troubleshoot the call.
To read the article from BMC Health Services Research, click here.
To find out more about how SimpleVisit can help your telemedicine program, click here or call 877-83-VISIT.
About Simple Visit
SimpleVisit is a video service which allows patients and providers to connect over the video platform of their choice. With SimpleVisit providers are able to deliver on-demand visits to patients over any device or platform they have available to them. For more information on SimpleVisit and on how we are enabling providers to host virtual visits check out www.SimpleVisit.com
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