The ongoing changes in healthcare delivery during this pandemic should minimize the impact of patient surges on facilities. To do so, the healthcare systems need to adjust the way they evaluate and care for patients using advanced technologies. Telehealth visits help patients to receive care from their homes while minimizing the risk of COVID-19.

Not only patients but also healthcare providers discovered the benefits of accessing healthcare from home. This meant a lot by reducing the stress and expense of traveling to a doctor’s clinic for personal visits, adding patient convenience, and improving access to doctors from any location. Most of the patients still confused about how to do telehealth virtual visits? What do they offer? what are the telemedicine requirements? and more. This article is for the patients who are making use of the telehealth visits for the first time and for the ones who wish to know more about it.

The
Difference Between Telehealth & Telemedicine

According to
the American Academy of Family Physicians, telehealth refers to electronic and
telecommunications tools and services used to provide distance care. In the
same way, telemedicine refers to the practice of medicine using technology to
deliver care at a distance.

The key
difference between these two is scope. Telemedicine refers specifically to
remote clinical services, while telehealth refers to remote non-clinical
services besides.

What
Patients Can Do With Telehealth Services?

Home-based
diagnostics and gadgets support telehealth services by permitting patients to
work with a portion of the testing on their own that was already just
accessible in specialists’ workplaces. Blood pressure checks, blood sugar
checks, heart rate checks would all be able to be effortlessly done at home,
and the data immediately sent to your doctor for telehealth follow-up.

Telehealth
Visits For Patients

Safety &
Security Should Be Your First Focus

Privacy is
an important factor for telehealth visits because, without it, patients won’t feel
comfortable accessing their care virtually. Creating a physical location that
has complete privacy, audio and excellent video capabilities for telehealth
virtual visits is ideal. The one thing you want to make sure of it, you won’t
be distracted. So you can access quality care and spend most of your time with
your providers.

That means your living space needs to be set up in a way that facilitates your service needs. First, pick a quiet room and secure It needs to be quiet enough that you can hear your doctor easily, and your doctor can hear you. Second, the location needs to be secure, so that unauthorized people won’t be able to overhear your private healthcare information. It also needs to be secure so that if you are being examined as part of the visit, someone doesn’t walk in on you.

RELATED: TELEHEALTH EHR INTEGRATION IMPROVES CLINICAL WORKFLOW

Efficiency And
Comfort Planning

Within your selected area, you also want to have everything you need handy, Ensure you have any relevant medical devices, medications, or required items in an accessible area. Having these stored close to where you’ll be participating in these sessions will be essential for as many sessions as the clinician schedules with you.

The internal medicine specialist also recommends having your insurance cards close at hand in case your physician’s office requests the information before or after the consultation.  Design for telehealth visits from the home may be similar to the set-up for home offices but should provide adequate support to access any health-monitoring equipment used by the patient.

The Adoption
Of Technology Matters The Most

Both the patients and the healthcare providers need to have a device with a screen, maybe a smartphone, tablet, or desktop. Make sure that the devices are ready with good internet service and video capabilities for your telehealth services.

RELATED: TELEHEALTH – THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE

Final
Thoughts

While U.S healthcare is focusing more on treating the COVID-19 patients, we have seen a massive acceleration today in the use of telehealth services to make sure care is delivered on time. During this period, healthcare organizations across the country start investing more in telehealth solutions to create familiarity with virtual care. Whatever the condition may be, telehealth visits are the best choice to access quality care from your home.

While many practices have stepped up to leverage telehealth, there is still a long way to go. Need assistance in implementing the right solutions for your practice? CapMinds telehealth services can transform the way healthcare is delivered.