October is Now Remote Patient Care Month at BodySite!
Introducing Remote Patient Care Month
This October, BodySite is introducing Remote Patient Care Month, celebrating the future of health care. During Remote Patient Care Month we will discuss what remote patient care encompasses, the future of remote patient care, and how it can help you to provide better care to your patients.
We understand that providing patients with proper care can be time consuming, which is why Remote Patient Care Month is here to help you understand how this technology can be a game-changer in your practice.
Each year throughout the month of October, BodySite will highlight topics related to remote patient care: its trends, its evolution, and how it can benefit your practice.
What is Remote Patient Care?
Remote patient care is an umbrella term for digital tools and technology that allow for providers to care for their patients in between office visits, virtually and remotely in place of face to face encounters when appropriate.
Today, there are a myriad of digital remote patient care tools available that will allow your practice to not only improve the quality of care you bring to your patients, but can even generate new revenue. There is also a huge opportunity to reach the underserved communities that don’t have access to direct in-office care because of time and distance.
The Emergence of Remote Patient Care
Surprisingly, doctors have been remotely caring for their patients as far back as 100 years ago by sending medical information via telegraph or consulting with patients via the radio. Then, in the 50s and 60s, providers were using televisions to evaluate psychiatric patients [1].
Later, with the wide adoption of personal computers, doctors began to record and monitor patients’ progress digitally. However, they still weren’t able to touch patients in between office visits the way we can today.
Now, with 5G internet and unfathomable levels of technology and information at our fingertips, we’re able to literally care for patients in the comfort of their homes without having to physically make a house call.
The technologies that drive virtual and remote patient care include telehealth/telemedicine, digital patient education, remote patient monitoring tools and much more.
How Can Remote Patient Care Help Your Patients?
Our world has been catapulted into an exciting, ever evolving digital space. Despite the overwhelming access to information, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression [2], and chronic health conditions such as diabetes [3] remain high.
This would suggest that our patients have, perhaps, too much information, and not enough support from their healthcare providers in deciding what information to focus on for their individual needs.
Fortunately, remote patient care technology can help providers give patients tools, support and guidance, every day, without having to meet with them face to face.
Providers and patients alike can track and monitor progress, schedule discussions, disseminate education and guidance through HIPAA complaint channels of communication and much more.
Leveraging these tools can result in improved patient outcomes and compliance without putting an additional strain on you or your practice.
How Remote Patient Care Can Be Financially Lucrative For Your Practice
In the last few years, wellness providers have had to see their income decline for a variety of reasons including lower reimbursements and greater competition.
These impacts can effect your practice negatively, resulting in greater focus on reactive care rather than wellness care, and less time spent with patients. Neither you or your patients benefit from this. A greater number of patients in need of attention creates more volume, but no increase in profit margin, which leads to practice burnout.
The only way to break this cycle is to work smarter, not harder. In today’s healthcare landscape, it’s important for your practice to put greater focus on your patients’ care outside of the office in a way that increases the time spent with each patient. This will greatly benefit your patients as well as your bottom line.
After your in-person visits with patients, it’s hard to know if they are following your guidance — or if they even remember what they were supposed to do once they’re home. Low patient compliance leads to low patient outcomes and puts your patients right back into your office, which will cost your practice more time and money.
These tools can not only improve the quality of care you bring to your patients, but also generate new revenue for your practice. Throughout October, we’ll be discussing various kinds of remote patient care tools and how to leverage them to achieve your practice’s goals. Stay tuned for these upcoming highlights on BodySite’s blog.
Remote Patient Care Platform
If you’re looking for remote patient care tools to assist you in guiding your patients remotely, check out BodySite.com. BodySite offers HIPAA-compliant messaging/telemedicine, an automated patient education system, and many other ways to care for your patients remotely.
Click here to claim your 30-Day Free Trial of the BodySite platform; click here to learn more about the BodySite solution.
All Remote Patient Care Month Topics:
- Telehealth Trends in 2022
- The Evolution of Patient Education
- Innovations in Remote Patient Monitoring
SOURCES
- “The History of Telehealth: Telemedicine through the Years.” Sigmund Software, 8 May 2020, www.sigmundsoftware.com/blog/history-of-telehealth/.
- World Health Organization. “COVID-19 Pandemic Triggers 25% Increase in Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression Worldwide.” World Health Organization, 2 Mar. 2022, www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Diabetes Statistics Report website. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html. Accessed October 2022.