While face-to-face visits are still preferred by many, 90% of
healthcare organizations polled by HIMSS Media say they're using or piloting
remote care services to boost care coordination, manage at-risk patients and
broaden pop health efforts.
By Mike Miliard
November 12, 2019
More
and more patients are able to take advantage of remote consults and other
virtual care options as health systems have begun pursuing telehealth programs
in earnest, new HIMSS Media research shows.
WHY IT
MATTERS
That's not necessarily to say that many patients – and, indeed, many providers – don't still prefer old-fashioned, in-person, one-on-one doctor-patient consults.
That's not necessarily to say that many patients – and, indeed, many providers – don't still prefer old-fashioned, in-person, one-on-one doctor-patient consults.
But as
the new realities of staffing challenges and value-based care become apparent –
and regulatory and reimbursement policies evolve to accommodate it – more and
more healthcare organizations are embracing telehealth.
Nine in
10 of them, in fact, are offering or piloting telehealth programs, according to
the new 2019 HIMSS report, "Telehealth: Disrupting the Care Delivery
Paradigm."
Of the
125 respondents asked about the telehealth projects underway at the U.S.
hospital or health system where they work, 64% said they offer inpatient
specialist consultation, and 61% said they offer remote patient monitoring.
Fifty-nine
percent offer mental or behavioral health visits, while the same number said
they offer outpatient specialist consultations; 55% offer remote sick visits
and 49% offer wellness visits via telehealth. Slightly fewer providers (42%
each) offer consultations via text and/or post-discharge follow-ups.
That
might be attributable, in part, to technology challenges. While low-hanging
fruit such as patient portals are commonplace at this point, the HIMSS survey
shows that secure text-based and unified communication platforms are not as
widespread.
To the
question, "How well-prepared is your organization in each of the following
technology areas to provide telehealth?" 60% said they were
"very" or "extremely" prepared to manage portals, but fewer
health systems were well-positioned to store high volumes of data (53%), offer
provider-facing communication platforms (50%), or secure video technology to
connect docs and patients (47%).
Further
down the list? Just 42% and 36%, respectively, say they're prepared to offer
secure text-based platforms to enable patient-physician communication or
unified patient-facing communication platforms.
Some of
the biggest limitations, however, have more to do with factors on the patient
side.
HIMSS
research shows that 42% of provider-side respondents said they believe their
patients' "preference for face-to-face interaction" is a major
element limiting their telehealth adoption – far and away the most-cited
reason.
Other
hurdles on the way toward wider patient acceptance of telehealth: lack of
access to video-enabled devices such as smartphones or camera-equipped
computers (29%), lack of confidence in the safety and security of virtual care
(29%), lack of technical knowledge to connect with telehealth services (28%),
lack of robust and reliable access to mobile data and cell service (26%), lack
of robust and reliable access to internet (26%) and concern about the quality
of care offered via telehealth (20%).
THE
LARGER TREND
The good news is that more and more patients are accepting and trusting of remote care technology. Which is helpful, because telehealth is here to stay – and promises to make further inroads as the realities of value-based reimbursement make its many benefits too hard to ignore.
The good news is that more and more patients are accepting and trusting of remote care technology. Which is helpful, because telehealth is here to stay – and promises to make further inroads as the realities of value-based reimbursement make its many benefits too hard to ignore.
At the
Connected Health Conference in Boston this past month, five longtime leaders in telehealth
took the stage to discuss what's next for virtual care and remote monitoring.
Their vision? One in which "primary care doctors will be virtualists, who
are going to take care of hyper-convenient care, very scalably, using virtual
online technologies," as Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, chief medical officer at
MDLIVE and a longtime physician IT leader at Northwestern, explained.
Dr.
John Halamka, international healthcare innovation professor at Harvard Medical
School, agreed, predicting a new era of "virtualist centers in what were
formerly known as hospitals. It's going to be the emergency department for
heart attacks or strokes. An ICU tower right next door which will take care of
the sickest of the sick that can't possibly have home health care … But other
than that? All the ambulatory care stuff, and all the simple stuff? It all gets
moved into the home."
ON THE
RECORD
"The pace of telehealth adoption is accelerating driven by a desire to expand access to care, make care more convenient, address talent gaps/shortages, improve care coordination, better monitor and treat at-risk populations and expand population health programs," said Janet King, senior director of market insights at HIMSS Media.
"The pace of telehealth adoption is accelerating driven by a desire to expand access to care, make care more convenient, address talent gaps/shortages, improve care coordination, better monitor and treat at-risk populations and expand population health programs," said Janet King, senior director of market insights at HIMSS Media.
"While
healthcare organizations are generally well-prepared with basic tools such as
patient portals, more complex unified communication platforms are somewhat more
of a challenge. Even though face-to-face interaction is still preferable for
most providers, more and more recognize that telehealth technologies can
improve both access and outcomes."
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare
IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
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