Telemedicine and health apps have become the latest buzzwords of clinical care industry. It involves the application of information and communication technology in the healthcare industry to legally allow physicians and medical care professionals to use mobile devices and apps to treat patients from remote locations.
Software and app developers are creating custom health apps to facilitate professionals to record patient information and review lab reports and vitals like temperature, blood pressure and sugar levels. In addition to monitoring patient’s condition, doctor apps legally allow practitioners to treat common illness and chronic disease management.
Doctor app and health technology has simplified a wide range of time-consuming tasks like time management, patient record maintenance, communication and consultation. Successful implementation of this technology in medical care settings not only increase efficiency level, but also help professionals in clinical decision making according to the available data.
Despite offering these compelling benefits, practitioners and nursing care staff show reluctance to adopt app-based technology solutions. This is just because of the lack of awareness.
Here I am explaining technical perspectives all health care organizations and professionals must know before saying no to adopt mobile technology in their system.
Start incorporating simple technologies
The best way to transform conventional practices in a clinical care facility is to start using existing processes like email, phone and SMS to see how it is helping to connect with consumers. It’s a good idea to utilize existing systems, instead of direct implementation of custom-built software and mobile apps.
Once you uncover the potential abilities of telehealth systems to record, view and manage patient details in an accessible form, you don’t find a reason to avoid using it. The system is so efficient as it can even inform about patient’s reports have been received and results need to be discussed immediately with the patient to start suitable medication.
The software allows doctors to make outbound calls on a patient cell phone to discuss things immediately. This is how virtual technology is offering the benefits of conventional telephone calls.
Consider consumer preferences to choose the most suitable connection methodology
As I have already mentioned start using existing communication modes, to choose the best among them, speak with consumers to see how they prefer to stay connected. Whether they feel comfortable receiving emails and SMS alerts or they prefer faxes and phone calls. These are few of the traditional communication modes to stay connected. In contrast to that smartphones are the latest devices, consumers are widely using across the world. Capability to run apps and internet makes them very suitable to run health apps. Conduct consumer survey to see how many users are using smartphones. It’s no surprise if you find a maximum number of smartphone users.
Focus to find a way that facilitates both your staff and end users. Despite all the technologies, you can still find medical staff busy in approaching patients manually. Apps and software automate the system and free up resources to carry out other important tasks. Integrating Electronic Health Record HER is the simplest and efficient way to save valuable time and efforts of resources.
Follow a balanced approach and avoid extremes
When it comes to implementing virtual technology, protect yourself to proceed in the wrong direction. Plan it strategically and develop a well-balanced approach to keep things in control. Offer consumers a flexibility to pick a suitable mode to connect with their physician. Avoid forceful implementation. Due to lack of awareness, people often show their interest to avail virtual assistance only in case of emergencies.
To ensure successful implementation of these sophisticated technological solutions, work gradually and avoid implementing too small and too many virtual programs simultaneously across all the programs in your organization. Initial implementation requires extensive support at every stage from workflow mapping, technical support, education and marketing. Pick a couple of departments to incorporate virtual technology, while giving customers a flexibility to opt out as well.
Endnote:
These are few of the technical perspectives of adopting virtual technology or telehealth, every healthcare organization should consider ensuring a flawless and stress-free implementation.