Banty Co-Founder and Medical Director, Dr. Richard Tytus, provided the subject matter and direction for this article. The author would like to thank Adam Grant for his editorial assistance in writing the article. Dr. Richard Tytus takes responsibility for the content of the article.
We speak a lot about how a medical clinic increasing its usage of telemedicine services provides a level of convenience patients don’t usually receive during in-person appointments. Although that is abundantly true, convenience is only the tip of the iceberg.
On top of patients having an easier time getting to their appointment, these individuals can actually stay healthier by agreeing to participate in a video call with their doctor.
To be clear, virtual medicine services do not magically prevent individuals from illnesses and ailments. What they do, however, is help stop these issues from getting any more pronounced and long lasting.
In order to keep your patients as healthy as possible, turn to online doctor’s appointments because:
Germs Can Travel in Waiting Rooms
There will be days where your clinic has a very crowded waiting room packed with patients who have various illnesses. Thus, it is entirely possible for a patient to catch a new/different virus by simply showing up at your brick-and-mortar location.
By making doctor-patient video calls a treatment option for specific matters, you are not unnecessarily exposing people to further health issues. Instead, patients can log into their appointment, from home, using a computer, smartphone, or tablet. This is definitely a more desirable way of doing things.
Rest is Important
Whether it’s an illness or an injury, it is important for a patient to get their rest. Not pushing a patient too hard can help speed up the healing process and see that they make a timely recovery.
Having a great telemedicine solution in place will allow your clinic to see what’s going on with a patient and decide whether or not it’s in their best interest to actually see you in-person.
What can help make these decisions is your clinical team asking the right questions when a patient calls in. During these conversations, clinical staff members should be able to determine who should come in, and who should stay home to rest.
Less Stress is Experienced from Home
There can be a lot of stressors that pop up on the day someone has to travel to a doctor for an in-person appointment.
These could include the rush to get out of work so that the appointment can be made; car issues or traffic along the way; or sitting in a crowded waiting room. If any – or all three – happen ahead of an appointment the patient could get stressed out.
In addition to rest, minimizing stress also helps a person recover from their ailment. If you can provide a more stress-free scenario like an online telemedicine appointment, why wouldn’t you?
More Frequent Appointments Can be Had
For a multitude of reasons, some people strongly dislike having to go and visit a physical medical clinic. This could be due to a phobia, or more straightforward matters like scheduling difficulties and not being sure if a particular issue requires a trek all the way into a clinic.
Individuals affected by those issues would be happy to know their needs can be met thanks to your clinic offering online doctor’s appointments. What’s more, this type of treatment option would encourage these individuals to see the doctor when they should, as opposed to waiting on a reminder call, or determining if a trip to the clinic is worthwhile.
When patients see their doctor more regularly – or at least when they’re supposed to – better tabs can be kept on their health. Especially as it relates to conditions that need to be monitored, or immediately worked on.
