NEW YORK, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The adoption of
telehealth solutions is clearly on the rise among healthcare
providers, an increase significantly bolstered as large employers
embrace the technology. Studies show at least 74 percent of the
nation's largest employers plan to offer telehealth benefits this
year, and experts estimate virtual consults will increase a
stunning 62 percent by 2020. While the numbers are encouraging,
however, they may not provide an accurate indicator of telehealth's
future success. According to Logicalis Healthcare Solutions,
the healthcare-focused arm of Logicalis US, an international IT
solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), one
of the most important factors in the success or failure of any
telehealth solution comes down to just one critical question:
Are the provider's patients comfortable using it? It's just
as much about the user experience (UX) as it is the technology used
to build it.
"With all the attention being paid to the technological aspect
of telehealth, it's also critical for healthcare organizations to
pay close attention to the way they replicate the face-to-face
experience in the virtual world," says Kim
Garriott, Principal Consultant, Healthcare Strategies, for
Logicalis Healthcare Solutions. "If the entire telehealth
experience doesn't feel comfortable to the patient, the best
technology in the world won't make it a success. The key is to
minimize the differences between practicing telemedicine and simply
practicing medicine – for telehealth to succeed, the two must
become one."
Six Ways to Enhance the Patient's Telehealth
Experience
When patients have a positive experience with
telemedicine, they are more likely to use the service again.
Creating the right environment, therefore, is as important as
choosing the right technology, something a solution provider
experienced in the healthcare market can help the provider
accomplish. Logicalis' telehealth experts have identified six
important factors CIOs need to consider and collaborate with their
practitioners about before launching a telehealth initiative.
- Focus on First Impressions: When people enter a doctor's
office or hospital, their first experience with that provider is
usually in the waiting room. Often, there are televisions
running loops of educational healthcare videos. There are handouts
on tables and a receptionist to speak with. Why should the
virtual world be any different? When planning a telehealth
solution, it's important to think through the UX that each patient
will have from the time they make an appointment until their visit
is complete, and that includes the few minutes that may transpire
between the time they sign on until the time the doctor sees
them. Is the screen blank and the patient left to multitask,
wondering if they've been disconnected? Or is there a lively
virtual waiting room with information available while they wait?
This first impression sets the stage for the entire visit and may
determine whether or not the patient embraces or rejects
telemedicine as a whole.
- Stage the Location: Before implementing a telehealth
solution, think carefully about the physical location where the
consults will take place. Consider placing the physician's endpoint
in the doctor's office, with an orderly bookshelf filled with
medical journals behind the physician, or perhaps in an examination
room with the exam table located directly behind the doctor's seat
and his or her framed credentials placed purposefully within sight.
If patient consults take place in a pharmacy or other
clinical setting, the same holds true; the patient's endpoint
should be in a comfortable, nicely appointed setting. In
telehealth's earliest days, many televisits took place with
patients sitting in a stark, white, uninviting, sterile cubby with
nothing more than a workstation and a chair. This kind of
environment is not conducive to an open and personal discussion.
The idea is to give the patient confidence in both the process and
the doctor, and to make the televisit look and feel as similar to a
face-to-face examination as possible.
- Choose a Quiet Spot: Whether the telehealth endpoint is
located in a practitioner's office or a local pharmacy, never place
it out in the open where people are walking by or where the typical
ebb and flow in the office or retail environment will distract
either the patient or doctor while they talk. The environment
should be completely quiet – eliminate all background noise so both
parties can focus 100 percent of their attention on their
interaction.
- Guard the Patient's Privacy: Privacy is as important
online as it is in the examination room. Whether a visit
takes place in person or online, patients may need to disrobe to
show a condition or injury to the doctor; they won't feel
comfortable if their virtual exam room does not seem private.
Online patients expect – and deserve – the same courtesies as those
being treated in person, an important consideration when deciding
where to locate a telehealth solution inside the practice, pharmacy
or physician's home.
- Dress for Success: The way the doctor looks may
influence how the patient feels about the overall experience,
particularly so with those new to telemedicine. Therefore,
practitioners should "dress for success," wearing what they
normally wear to work – whether that's a suit and tie or a lab coat
– in front of the camera.
- Always Make Eye Contact: Look the patient in the eye,
not the computer. When patients and doctors interact in person,
body language plays an important role; doctors may look at a chart
while speaking to the patient, but the way they move and hold their
bodies still says, "I'm paying attention." Those nuances are lost
in the virtual world, so it's critical to make eye contact with the
patient, and that means looking into the camera, not staring
at the patient's image on the screen. It may feel unnatural
at first, but it will give the patient a sense of connectedness
with the doctor even though they may be many miles apart.
Want to Learn More?
- If America's youth are driving the adoption of telemedicine,
healthcare providers that are not yet catering to the younger
patient demographic with telehealth options may be falling behind;
learn more here: http://ow.ly/lYU4300vBLa.
- Find out why Logicalis experts say there are no shortcuts on
the road to telehealth, then download a white paper, "How to Design
and Implement a Successful Telehealth Program":
http://ow.ly/lft5300vC3D.
- Read a blog about the signs that point to a telehealth tipping
point, then visit the telehealth page on the Logicalis Healthcare
Solutions website for more information:
http://ow.ly/sIi1300vCdc.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT
solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge
and expertise in communications and collaboration; data center and
cloud services; and managed services.
Logicalis employs over 4,000 people worldwide, including highly
trained service specialists who design, deploy and manage complex
IT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 6,500 corporate and
public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis maintains
strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM,
EMC, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow on an international
basis. It has specialized solutions for enterprise and medium-sized
companies in vertical markets covering financial services, TMT
(telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare,
retail, government, manufacturing and professional services,
helping customers benefit from cutting-edge technologies in a
cost-effective way.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North
America, Latin America and
Asia Pacific and is one of the
leading IT and communications solution integrators specializing in
the areas of advanced technologies and services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on
the Johannesburg and London AIM
Stock Exchanges, with revenues of over $6
billion.
For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.
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Media contacts:
Nickie Peters, Director of
Marketing,
Logicalis US
nickie.peters@us.logicalis.com
920-338-7622
www.us.logicalis.com
Karen Franse, Communication Strategy
Group for Logicalis US
kfranse@gocsg.com
866-997-2424
www.gocsg.com
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