Impact of virtual care on health care delivery in 2020!
The health care industry continues to focus on different aspects. These aspects are better health care to patients at competitive rates. Use of the latest technologies for improving the service quality. Along with patients the health care industry also emphasizes on the benefits that the health care professional can get with the use of new technology.
Virtual care has the power to give all these types of major benefits to both patients as well as health care professionals. No wonder that the popularity of this important technology has increased by leaps and bounds. This trend will surely continue in 2020 as well.
Ways in which virtual care will impact the health care sector in 2020:
Major health systems will prioritize virtual care:
Many big employers and health care systems in the US have already adopted virtual care technology or are in the process of doing so. It is estimated that in the year 2020 almost 50% of the major employers will choose virtual care options for their employees.
More than 60% of US health systems and hospitals are already offering virtual health care programs. By the end of 2020 more than 20% of these facilities are aiming to choose consumer telemedicine platform.
Increase in the demand and expectations of consumers:
Thanks to digitalization the consumers today have better access to different products and services. They are aware of the different trends in different sectors. So even in the case of health care, you can expect that consumers will be more demanding. They will need personalized care. They will demand the right treatment and they will want it within the stipulated time.
One of the most important things that health care providers must note is that telehealth provides best customer satisfaction. This means that if your health care facility has not yet adhered to a good telemedicine solution then they need to do it right away.
Towards better mental healthcare:
Employers have to understand that their employees can give their best only if they are fit. Now here the focus should not be only on physical health. Mental health is also a major factor that has to be considered in the overall health of the employees.
According to reports of the 2019 Mental Health Workplace Study, about 60% of the employees with mental health issues suffered from depression and anxiety. It has also been found that more than 80% of the employees try to hide their mental health issues from their employers. This is mainly due to the stigma attached to mental sickness.
But a mentally sick person can never give his 100% at the workplace. Virtual care surely is a viable solution for giving better mental healthcare to the employees. It has been found that more than 70% of employees with depression and anxiety issues have gained benefits from virtual health care options.
Ease in the management of chronic conditions:
Patients who are suffering from chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma etc. can easily choose the option of virtual care from the convenience of their homes and workplace. Virtual care helps them overcome issues like geographic barriers, time restrictions etc. Recently a virtual care coaching study was carried out. In this, more than 45 % of patients with hypertension issue showed marked improvement. More than 35% of diabetic patients lost around 5% of their total body weight.
Better training of the new generation for a healthy tomorrow:
Experts of the medical fraternity will naturally age tomorrow. According to the Association for American Medical Colleges, there will be a shortage of 131000 physicians in the near future. This number includes a large number of primary healthcare physicians. This is an alarming figure.
Therefore, it is important that many physicians are given specialty training. There are some renowned medical schools that have introduced specialized fellowships that will help the experts of tomorrow to understand the importance of virtual care. The emphasis of these programs is to help them master the virtual care aspect so that the physicians can provide better treatment and care to patients by adhering to a virtual platform.
It is clear that we are soon going to enter into an era of “virtualist” physicians who will treat patients by using tools like telemedicine. These “virtualist” need to have complete knowledge about clinical protocol, virtual care policies etc.
The future of healthcare is telemedicine. It is time to choose a HIPAA compliant telemedicine solution like Doxiva- Doctor’s Intelligent Virtual Assistant. This is an artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant that supports Asynchronous and Synchronous models of Telehealth. For more details about this exclusive product, you need to check the free demo of Doxiva.
