Posted by Mike Rigert on Feb 15, 2021 10:00:00 AM
As we’ve seen over the past year, telehealth has been an
incredibly important tool to deliver healthcare to patients whether as a
response to the COVID-19 pandemic to keep people safe or out of mere
convenience. Similarly, virtual health is poised to become the next big thing
in healthcare because of patient demand for greater digital communication with
providers and healthcare organizations' need to engage better with patients.
The following are five reasons why virtual care will follow
telehealth in expanding into a much sought after communications asset for
healthcare organizations in 2021.
1.
More
and more people are connecting digitally than ever before. Whether it be for communication or shopping
or entertainment, more people want the ability to have digital connectivity to
conduct daily life. In a consumer-driven economy, people want the speed,
convenience and effectiveness of instant communication or the ability to make a
real-time transaction because it’s easy, they’re busy, and it saves them
time. Greater numbers
of people own smartphones and are increasingly sending texts where
they once would have made a phone call or sent an email.
2.
Virtual
care and telehealth are on the upswing. The number of telehealth visits during the first quarter of
2020 increased by 50 percent compared
with the same time period in 2019. During a single week in March 2020, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 154 percent increase in
telehealth visits. In addition, 83 percent of
Americans say they expect to make telehealth visits after COVID-19, this in
spite of the fact that just eight percent of
patients had a telehealth visit prior to the pandemic. Patients can save
over 100 minutes connecting
via telehealth as opposed to an in-person visit, and they can conduct the
appointment from the comfort of their own home. The telehealth market is
expected to reach $186 billion by
2026.
3.
Virtual
care and telehealth offer patients the digital communication access to
healthcare they want. Patients
want to be able to easily reach providers to schedule appointments, get
appointment reminders, and ask questions without the hassle of having to make a
phone call or the inconvenience of waiting on hold. Nearly 80 percent of
patients want to be able to get text messages from their provider and 73
percent of patients want the ability to send texts to their provider.
Increasingly, consumers are realizing the advantages of two-way texting and so
are patients.
5.
Healthcare
organizations are moving toward tools like virtual care to be able to
communicate more efficiently with patients. It’s in providers’ best interests to embrace
innovative patient communication tools like virtual care and telehealth. Not
only are they the methods by which patients want to connect, but automated
patient communications like virtual care are able to streamline scheduling
communications and free up staff for more important duties. At the same time,
things like automated appointment texts drive much better results that phone
calls reminders and help providers increase confirmations while reducing
no-shows and late cancellations. One patient communication preference study
showed that appointment reminder texts sent in line with best practices can
reduce no-shows by 156 percent.
6.
Virtual
care and telehealth support better patient engagement and improved patient
outcomes. When providers adopt
virtual health tools like automated appointment reminders, digital recall, and
two-way text messing, they’re communicating with patients in the way they want
to connect. That means patients will be more likely to engage with their
providers and receive the care they need which can result in increased patient
satisfaction levels. When patients are actively engaged with their healthcare
provider and receiving the care they need—whether it be an in-office
appointment or telehealth visit—providers are much more likely to also see
gains in patient outcomes.
The future of patient relationships will depend on providers’
ability to innovate and adopt the communication technologies that patients
prefer. Virtual care and telehealth are leading the way in demonstrating how
patients and providers can connect more meaningfully in an ever more digital
healthcare space.
To learn more about how virtual care and telehealth are changing
the healthcare communications landscape, download the guide “Seeing Patients
Virtually and Getting Paid for It.”
Mike
Rigert has been a content creator in marketing and communications with several
technology companies for a decade. At SR Health, Rigert is tasked with creating
compelling content that helps visitors overcome their pain points to make their
organizations more profitable. When he’s not wordsmithing, he enjoys discussing
sci-fi, reading nonfiction and devouring a tasty piece of chocolate.
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