Repositioning Telehealth: Looking Forward to Virtual Care in 2018

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration,

Over the past year, “telehealth” has emerged as an umbrella term for the broad range of technologies and methods which are used to deliver virtual medical, health, and education services for patients and providers. The key word is “virtual.”  Telehealth-related tools and technologies are designed to provide care in a virtual manner.

In looking forward to 2018, virtual care is expected to be more widely embraced by healthcare organizations, providers, patients and members. Here are a few expectations for the new year in healthcare:

  1. Extra applications: Virtual care solutions will be applied to more use-cases, more departments, and more populations.  Healthcare facilities and health plans will expand the use of virtual care beyond initial use-cases – and see how elastic and expansive virtual care can be when introduced across departments and patient / member populations.
  2. Expedited answers: Virtual consults will drive more real-time, real-life saving communications between providers, specialists, and patients.  In emergent care situations, virtual consults will allow providers to obtain immediate and impactful diagnoses and decisions by offsite specialists.  Virtual consults will be the go-to-solution for ensuring that patients are getting “seen” by specialists, regardless of the specialists’ location and if a patient is in the Emergency Department, an ambulance, another healthcare setting, or at home.
  3. Expanded capabilities: Virtual consults and virtual visits will enable smaller and/or rural hospitals to broaden and deepen their capabilities by allowing staff to reach out to specialists who may be hours away and/or associated with a different hospital.  Virtual care will help all patients receive the care they need, regardless of the distance between home, hospital, patient and provider.
  4. Extended reach: Virtual conversations will also let staff simultaneously add multiple family members to provider’s bedside / “webside”conversation with a specialist and the patient.  With a simple click of a button, personal caregivers can be integrated into critical discussions about the patient’s condition and next steps related to the transition of care.
  5. Enhanced care: Virtual care will deliver more timely and higher quality of care coordination amongst providers, care team staff, patients / members and caregivers. By allowing individuals to participate in their healthcare from any device, anywhere, and at any time, healthcare organizations will drive deeper patient / member engagement.  Virtual visits will help medical staff better monitor and motivate patients while reducing travel time and expenses, minimizing no-show’s and overcoming patient / member barriers to accessing convenient care.
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