Advantages and Disadvantages of Telemedicine Sample
The use of telemedicine in the United States of America (USA) is currently at an increasing rate. According to Kichloo et al. (2020), US hospitals and other healthcare institutions are increasingly adopting telemedicine into their systems partly due to the proliferation of computer technology as well as several other benefits associated with it. However, while the popularity of telemedicine is growing, there are a few challenges that are still associated with it. This essay outlines the challenges as well as the benefits of telemedicine.
Baiowala et al. (2020) define telemedicine as a telecommunication technology that enables health organizations to examine and diagnose patients from a distance. Telemedicine has been touted as a revolutionary approach to remote delivery of health and social care services especially when patients and service providers cannot meet physically for purposes due to certain constraints (Dorsey & Topol, 2020). Below are some of the advantages of telemedicine.
Advantages of Telemedicine
Integrating the latest telemedicine systems into a hospital’s operations can enable more accessible and convenient patient care. According to Karyagina & Sitdikova (2019), providing easy access to healthcare services is one of the ways of promoting patient satisfaction because it enables a personalized approach to care delivery thus enhancing patient-centered care.
Today, convenience is one of the key factors considered by service users when consuming healthcare services and therefore patients are more likely to be satisfied by convenient care. adding a virtual aspect to care delivery offers simple, on-demand care with reduced time and cost wastage associated with in-person visits (Rimmer et al., 2018). Patients who live remotely or those who cannot take a leave from work can easily access visual care services through telemedicine. Smartphone apps, online management systems and videoconferencing technology can now easily be used to connect patients with their care providers than ever before.
Telemedicine can also help save costs of care. It enables remote service analysis and monitoring as well as data storage techniques that ultimately save on service costs for the hospital, the patients, and the insurance providers (Contreras et al., 2020). Apart from the cost savings, telemedicine can also enhance providers’ revenue by turning on call-time into billable hours, as well as reducing no-shows, or reducing the cost of care providers who would like to be more flexible with their service delivery.
Disadvantages of Telemedicine
Whereas telemedicine can present all the above benefits, it still has a few practical problems and challenges for healthcare providers. For instance, purchasing and training employees on IT equipment can be costly and time-consuming. According to Kichloo et al. (2020), nurses, physicians, health supervisors and managers must be trained on the new system to optimize the system’s return on investment.
Telemedicine has also been accused of reducing care continuity. As per Baiowala et al. (2020), on-demand telemedicine services enable patients to connect to different care providers, and this may discontinue the provision of care that had begun with a different practitioner. Typically, a patient’s primary care provider may not have access to the patient’s records from other visits and this leads to incomplete patient history.
Conclusion
Adding telemedicine to a hospital organization is a significant move towards enhancing the efficiency and quality of care. Through telemedicine, patients can conveniently access care. it is also associated with reduced cost wastage associated with in-person visits. It enables remote service analysis and monitoring as well as data storage techniques that ultimately save on service costs for the hospital, the patients, and the insurance providers. However, purchasing and training employees on the IT equipment can be costly and time-consuming, something that healthcare facilities must contend with today.
References
- Bajowala, S. S., Milosch, J., & Bansal, C. (2020). Telemedicine pays: billing and coding update. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports, 20(10), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-020-00956-y
- Contreras, C. M., Metzger, G. A., Beane, J. D., Dedhia, P. H., Ejaz, A., & Pawlik, T. M. (2020). Telemedicine: patient-provider clinical engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 24(7), 1692-1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-020-04623-5
- Dorsey, E. R., & Topol, E. J. (2020). Telemedicine 2020 and the next decade. The Lancet, 395(10227), 859. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30424-4
- Karyagina, E. N., & Sitdikova, R. I. (2019). Telemedicine: The concept and legal regulation in Russia, Europe, and USA. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 8(4), 417-424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v8i4.2390
- Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, R. C., Kanugula, A. K., Solanki, S. & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: a narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family Medicine And Community Health, 8(3). doi: 10.1136/fmch-2020-000530
- Rimmer, R. A., Christopher, V., Falck, A., de Azevedo Pribitkin, E., Curry, J. M., Luginbuhl, A. J., & Cognetti, D. M. (2018). Telemedicine in otolaryngology outpatient setting—single center head and neck surgery experience. The Laryngoscope, 128(9), 2072-2075. https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.27123