Telehealth Is The New Normal. Tips for Healthcare Providers
It’s been two weeks since SessionStack’s team moved to work fully remotely. Everything was great in the first few days. The 30-minute commute from home to the office became a 30-second walk from the bedroom to the living room. No one missed the time spent in the subway or in front of the mirror wondering what to wear. And certainly, no one complaint when some face-to-face meetings turned into emails and Slack messages.
However, while working in your sweatpants and t-shirt seemed so cool at the beginning, it came at no surprise when with time it started to take a toll on us. For many, the isolation and loss of social support associated with working alone causes stress and increases the risk of developing a mental health problem. According to a World Health Organization report, individuals who work from home have stress levels that are up to 70 percent higher. That’s because they are not seeing reassuring nods and smiles from their bosses and peers.
But anxiety and depression are not the only threat during social distancing. A sore throat, a fever or any worrying symptoms might require you to check in with your physician immediately and going to the hospital might not be the best decision to do so.
Telehealth is more relevant than ever
While we are all encouraged to avoid in-person treatment unless it’s a medical emergency, telemedicine is stepping up into the spotlight and helping healthcare provider organizations and caregivers better respond to the needs of everyone who needs to touch base with their providers on the status of their health. The idea of using telemedicine to prevent further spread of the virus is being adopted quickly. Everyone — government officials, healthcare providers, businesses, and consumers, is thinking telehealth first.
Governments take corrective measures
To boost remote visits, governments and insurance companies are loosening the rules on telehealth. In the USA, for example, the Trump Administration expanded Medicare telehealth coverage last week. Now Medicare beneficiaries will be able to receive various services through telehealth including common office visits, mental health counseling, and preventive health screenings. Health care providers can now bill remote visits as in-office, getting more reimbursements from insurance companies.
Health systems are going virtual
Health systems are racing to adapt and even develop virtual services that can serve as their front line for patients. Virtual doctor visits are critical to reduce the spread of the disease and avoid overwhelming local health care systems with cases of COVID-19 — for which there’s no medical cure. Academic medical centers in the USA had begun to ramp up their own telehealth services, including the ability to remotely triage COVID-19 patients, convert regular ambulatory visits to telehealth visits and, in some cases, deploy sophisticated telehealth technologies to monitor the sickest intensive care unit patients.
Businesses are responding
It’s not surprising that anxiety and depression heightened by isolation are leading to a boom in the use of teletherapy. According to a Forbes article, businesses are concerned about their employees’ mental well-being. For example, Starbucks has extended its mental health benefits during the Coronavirus pandemic. In partnership with Lyra Health, Starbucks is offering its partners personalized, confidential mental health care, 20 free in-person or video sessions every year for partners and each of their eligible family members, online scheduling with most providers available within two weeks, and access to a provider network of mental health therapists and coaches.
Consumer behaviors are changing
COVID-19 could be a tipping point for telemedicine. Not long ago, patients were reluctant to try something unfamiliar, especially if it doesn’t involve their regular doctor. They may hear about telemedicine from their employer or insurer and then forget about it when they need help a few months later.
Now, tables have turned and people are actively searching for the ability to receive medical care without leaving their homes. From just a few dozen visits a couple of weeks ago, Jefferson Health is now scheduling 500–600 telemedicine visits per day. Some patients using it for the first time will probably do it again — even after the pandemic is over.
More opportunities and challenges
The existing landscape of telehealth vendors has no shortage of plug-and-play telemedicine options. The majority of healthcare providers rely on existing video conferencing platforms like Zoom. Others are expanding their partnerships with commercial telemedicine companies like Amwell, Teledoc, GlobalMed, MDLive, Mend, Novotalk, and Dialogue.
While options are plenty, not all telemedicine platforms are created equal which can be frustrating for healthcare providers. And if not used well, there’s a chance that telemedicine could add to hospitals being overwhelmed. How to choose the right one then?
Seamless integration: A software provider that can seamlessly integrate into hospitals’ current workflow and systems will speed up implementation time and improve overall telemedicine ROI.
Secure: Keeping patients’ information safe should always be а top priority when implementing a telehealth program. The software should also be HITRUST certified and HIPAA compliant to meet industry standards.
Impeccable customer support: All types of issues and questions are bound to pop up when installing a new system, so the telehealth vendor should have robust customer service and IT support teams in place to help the organization make this important transition. In addition, patients might use the software as well, so when an issue arises they need to be able to address it immediately.
User-friendly: Hospitals will be using this new system frequently, so it needs to be easy to use or it could end up slowing their entire workflow. The interface should be intuitive to navigate while both care-providers and patients are searching for information.
Training: Telemedicine providers should offer robust training modules to help users launch their software, so practitioners will be able to use these resources to deploy telemedicine quickly.
SessionStack has been a long-term trusted partner of telemedicine and mental health software providers. We can confirm that the breakout in searches of telehealth providers is totally legit. In the last month, we have seen our customers’ demands for our co-browsing and session replay capabilities increase more than ever. With the rise of telehealth visits, there was a rise in customer support requests. SessionStack allows telehealth providers to see the struggles patients have and allows them to address them immediately. For example, Mend’s support team now watches users’ sessions while discussing the issue with the customer in real-time. This helps the team document and report issues more efficiently, speeding up support turnaround times, and increasing customer satisfaction levels.
Telehealth visits rose during a pandemic, but patients will continue to use telehealth long after the pandemic ends. The tables have turned.
