In the wake of COVID-19, telemedicine has taken center stage, and healthcare companies must recognize and respond to its influence on patient experience.
As both patients and physicians adjust to new normal, additional questions about the technology’s impact on patient happiness emerge, particularly one critical question:
What impact will the rise of telehealth visits have on the patient experience for both patients and caregivers?
In short, on-demand, virtual care is an effective tool for those responsible for increasing patient happiness. Whitelabelled Telemedicine is rated as equal to or better than in-person consultations by consumers across specialties.
In this article, you’ll learn about the top elements that influence people’s perceptions of telemedicine, the most important patient care benefits received from virtual services, and how telemedicine affects care quality.
The most often claimed reasons for patients’ desire for telemedicine are convenience, time savings, access to care, and financial savings. The key to improving the patient experience for virtual visits is emphasizing those benefits and assuaging worries about facetime and technology difficulties.
Telemedicine allows patients to avoid travel and waiting rooms, which are common sources of negative feedback, resulting in better baseline levels of satisfaction with providers. Several telehealth studies have highlighted this convenience benefit.
In a 2019 study of the influence of telemedicine on patient experience, researchers discovered gains in all of the National Quality Forum’s suggested domains: access (time spent in evaluation), experience (patient satisfaction), and efficacy (case cancellation rate). The telemedicine group spent an average of 24 minutes less in pre-admission testing (PAT) and had no cancellations, but numerous in-person appointments were canceled.
When it comes to follow-up consultations, telemedicine shines. Clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital indicated telehealth was crucial in providing convenient and timely follow-up visits in a study. Seventy percent said the technology allowed them to meet patients more quickly, and 50 percent claimed telehealth was cost-effective.
Consumer preference for virtual visits is shown in telemedicine research of radiation oncology patients due to convenience and time savings. For future consultations, the majority of patients favored virtual visits, roughly one-third wanted a mix of telemedicine and in-person visits, and only one patient preferred only in-person visits.
Financial Savings and Virtual Care Access
Payers and providers are beginning to see how telemedicine might help them control expenses.
According to Teladoc’s research, a lack of access to care has a detrimental impact on patient involvement and follow-through. In many circumstances, quick and easy access to health care helps to avert the need for more complex and costly therapy.
Patients who receive therapy through telemedicine face fewer hurdles to receiving rapid care, which leads to better outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.
According to the Massachusetts General Hospital study, 79 percent of patients said scheduling a virtual follow-up session was easier than scheduling a clinic visit, and 66% stated they had strong personal ties with their telemedicine physician. Patients saw this visit option as providing significantly increased convenience and saving travel time, and they reported readiness to pay co-payments for it.
The time saved commuting to care centers is especially beneficial in rural areas. Patients lose an average of $43 in wasted time for a regular doctor’s session, according to a Harvard Medical School study, a cost they will welcome being reduced by virtual services.
Increased results (20%), preferred modality (10%), simplicity of use (9%), low cost (8%), improved communication (8%), and reduced travel time (8%), according to Texas State University research, were the most often mentioned criteria relating telehealth to patient satisfaction (7 percent ).
And so far, these aspects have received high marks: According to eVisit, 95 percent of patients are satisfied with their telemedicine experience. A 2019 study on PAT echoes this figure, showing that employing telemedicine for PAT provided benefits for both patients and physicians in terms of access, patient experience, and effectiveness.
When comparing virtual visits to in-person visits, MGH discovered that many patients and professionals said: “the overall quality of the visit” was the same. It also discovered that:
62 percent said the quality of care received via telehealth was the same as an in-person visit; 21% said the quality of care received via telehealth was higher than an in-person visit, and 68 percent said their visit was a nine or a ten on a scale of one to ten.
It’s worth noting that, according to the study, when a patient received a lower score than a nine, it was usually due to a technical issue that MGH reported that was rectified before the visit was completed.
These are only a few of the numerous forms of treatment that can benefit from telemedicine, including pregnancy, rehabilitation, and chronic illnesses. With so many aspects of patient care benefiting from digital technology, your healthcare organization may safely plan to use virtual services to improve patient experience over time.
10 Factors that make MedleyMed patient-centric
Certain procedures are followed by MedleyMed for providing a customer-centric experience. Some of the factors are:
Spent enough time to provide quality care;
Completely resolved medical concern(s) on a visit;
Followed up after visit;
Online: Question/problem resolved on first contact; and
Phone: Question/problem resolved on first contact.
Consultation: Treatment with courtesy and respect during the consultation;
Consultation: Paid close attention;
Consultation: Clearly explaining everything;
Consultation: Reasonably priced given the kind of service received; and
Consultation: Provided simple answers to health-related queries or concerns.
The list prioritizes outcomes over convenience or simplicity of use, showing that people are most interested in getting their difficulties handled as soon as possible, preferably in one visit. If the problem isn’t resolved after one appointment, MedleyMed refers them to the proper care provider for follow-up visits.
Have the best Patient experience with MedleyMed
Places the needs of consumers first and puts them in command of their healthcare experience.
Self-service, on-demand access to information, assistance and care make it easier for customers to handle their requirements.
Ensures that digital capabilities are optimized across all interactions and touchpoints.
Reduces friction and improves experiences across the whole healthcare journey, from locating a physician or plan to addressing coverage or care needs to pay for services.
Increases patient or member relevance, value, and health outcomes through personalized care, interactions, and support.
Improves customer happiness by better satisfying their expectations for a modern, digitally enhanced experience.
Improves service, care, cost, and outcome clarity and transparency.
MedleyMed has improved patient and member experiences for hundreds of healthcare organizations with nearly 20 years of world-class expertise and cutting-edge innovations. MedleyMed can assist you in developing a Digital Front Door healthcare experience strategy that includes the following elements:
Interactions are transformed into extraordinary experiences.
Creates remarkable journeys at all points of contact
Personalizes the user’s experience and helps them achieve their goals.
Prospects are converted into loyalists.
Consumers and employees have less friction as a result of this.
Having the best experience for your health is very important and to make that possible, MedleyMed has all the experienced staff and an all-in-one application for all of your needs.
To have the best experience, all you need to do is log in to the Telemedicine app and book an appointment according to your convenience.