How to Improve Clinical Workflow With Telehealth Technology?

Telehealth technology with optimized workflow mapping can streamline health information exchanges. Therefore, the importance of workflow technology in healthcare for targeted care delivery is essential for healthcare providers.

As a result of the pandemic, many healthcare practices are compelled to adopt telehealth as soon as practicable. Therefore, healthcare providers did not have enough time to explore the optimal long-term Integrated Physician workflow thoroughly.

According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, Workflow is the set of physical and mental activities undertaken inside and across the workplace environment by different individuals. It can happen at multiple levels (one person, between individuals, through institutions) and can happen sequentially or concurrently. 

Telehealth platforms will help the healthcare staff rapidly catch the reason for the call or appointment to each patient. They will prioritize care delivery, recommend the right directives for treatment, and recognize additional information sources. 

Thus, healthcare providers will get the opportunity to use their resources better to serve more patients and provide the highest quality treatment.

With this, let’s check out the key features to include in your telehealth solutions below:

Key Features of Telehealth Software Systems

Here are some key features to consider: 

1. EHR/EMR Integration

In today’s era, EHR/EMR integration features are non-negotiable in telehealth software. As many patients require integrated care, a combination of care services from different centers, telehealth technology integration becomes the most important feature. Integrated healthcare solutions allow providers from different specializations to work together and improve patients’ health quotients.

Telehealth software that is integrated with EHR/EMR systems can communicate through a bidirectional workflow, which implies that both platforms can send and receive data. Such telehealth integration increases efficiency and improves the quality of care. It allows tracking health progress, prevents data duplication, and saves both patients’ and doctors’ time.

2. Appointment Booking

Appointment booking is another important feature to include in telehealth app development. All telehealth systems should provide features to efficiently manage appointment schedules. Telehealth technology apps should offer calendar integrations with Google and Microsoft Calendars.

This feature allows doctors to handle their schedules and allows patients to book appointments online in the available slots. An intuitive interface helps things go smoothly and makes it easier for patients to use telemedicine apps. Additionally, it should support an integrated workflow for rescheduling and canceling appointments whenever required.

3. Geolocation

Talking about telemedicine systems and ignoring the geolocation feature can be against medical law. As per the medical law, telemedicine technology apps must connect patients with providers geographically, which means the provider should be physically located in the same state. It is so because different states might follow different regulations, and this might become a barrier for medical billing and revenue cycle management.

By providing geolocation features in your tele health technology software you allow patients to find nearby pharmacies, and medical departments and can even offer instructions in emergencies and estimated travel time to reach the hospital. Also, patients get access to hospital maps and photos allowing them to easily locate the right place.

4. Chat Function

Developing telehealth technology solutions with built-in chat functions allows patients to connect to their providers when things aren’t that urgent. Such patient engagement solutions can help them give updates, ask follow-up questions, or talk about non-emergency stuff.

A built-in chat feature becomes a secure way to reach out to a doctor for various needs. This feature can prevent a communication gap between patients and doctors and enhances the patient-doctor experience. It further allows timely intervention and can prevent many aggravating conditions and side effects.

5. Payment Gateway

Providing a payment gateway in telemedicine technology apps can enhance the convenience of payment processing. Providing an integrated payment system in the telehealth technology software offers various advantages, like generating automated invoices, various payment options, safe payment processing, secure payment compliance, and more.

Mobile payment options in telehealth technology for hospitals enable patients to pay for the provided services. It can also track and analyze sales data for better healthcare management, contributing to better financial management.

Challenges of Telehealth Technology

1. Reimbursement

The substantial obstacle to adopting telemedicine technology in healthcare is reimbursement from several state Medicaid programs, Medicare, and commercial insurance plans. Though the telehealth services are accessed from different locations the providers face issues with inconsistent coverage across different regions and specialties. In such situations, it can get complex to navigate the reimbursement policies and structures.

As not every state has accepted the concepts like service parity and payment parity. The term payment parity means providing the same payment rate for telemedicine services as in-person doctor visits. However, customized telemedicine technology software can help providers check, before a virtual visit, whether telehealth services are covered by an insurance plan or not.

2. Diagnosis Accuracy

Another primary challenge of telemedicine technologies is using telehealth technology tools and digital instruments for patient examinations. Though the chances of misdiagnosis can occur in face-to-face visits, the risk becomes higher in remote care. Stats suggest that medical malpractice claims are soaring along with the adoption of telehealth technology.

Hence, such cases of misdiagnosis can hurt both the patients and healthcare providers. Also, drives up healthcare costs because of wrong prescriptions and potentially dangerous treatments. These issues can hold back the widespread adoption of telehealth solutions for healthcare. Additionally, providers who want to avoid the risk of medical errors may not invest in telehealth technology platforms.

3. Privacy and Confidentiality

Compared to in-person visits, telemedicine encounters are more vulnerable to privacy and security risks. As the medical sector deals with the most sensitive information, it has always been a target for data breaches. The number of cyber-attacks has increased in the healthcare industry, in fact, no platform is 100% safe from data breaches or hackers.

Investing in telehealth device development that is in accordance with HIPAA regulations and is highly encrypted can minimize such risks. Various laws offer privacy and security and protect patients’ health information collected by covered entities like providers, health care plans, and health care clearinghouses. The software vendors of telehealth technology are aware of data privacy issues and hence, can develop software with robust access controls and blockchain solutions.

Benefits of Telehealth Technology Solutions

1. Convenience

Opting for telehealth technology solutions can increase convenience by reducing travel and wait times. Telemedicine software with customized features like appointment scheduling allows patients to schedule doctor’s consultations between work and household chores. Patients with chronic diseases or mobility issues can access home care facilities, patients from small towns or rural areas can have virtual care access, and many such benefits.

2. Access to Care

Remote telehealth technology can reduce the disparities in care access because patients can get the benefits of remote patient monitoring regardless of location or distance barriers. Also, providers can use telehealth tools to keep an eye on their patients’ health metrics. According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the “Tele homes Segment is expected to witness a significant growth over the forecast period”. Further, it enables the provider to increase their patient base and impact while maintaining quality of care.

3. Continuity of Care

Cloud based telehealth technology facilitates better continuity of care. Healthcare cloud solutions enable telehealth providers to access patients’ data from anywhere and at any time, encouraging timely intervention. It allows patients to maintain regular contact with their providers through regular follow-up visits and medication management. Further, telehealth technology implementation reduces cancellations and no-shows, thus adding to the continuity of care.

How to Enhance the Use of Telehealth Technology Platforms?

Here are some recommendations to refine the telehealth workflow to render the possible use of telehealth technology:

1. Plan Ahead Your Telehealth Workflow

You have now invested time, resources, and capital in the new processes and cloud based telehealth technology. Your telehealth approach should plugin and operate directly with those networks that are already in operation, not outside them.

With telehealth technology, digital visits can be almost as effective, if not more than an in-person visit to the workplace. The more telehealth software systems that integrate, the less stress the practice and practitioners need to manage patient flow and patient information management.

Why not, for example, integrate your practice management solutions with your telemedicine solutions? Submit automatic appointment updates based on a clinical calendar, make a virtual visit, and reimburse for a session, all from one location.

Yeah, it is correct that the regulation of HIPAA compliance has been temporarily eased in these unusual circumstances. But the analysts don’t expect it to last. Plus, why bet on the privacy of your patient’s personal health information (PHI) because there are other choices?

Telehealth technology strives to develop innovative solutions; clinicians realize the importance of workflow optimization for every long-term approach to minimize future uncertainty and financial risk.

2. Prepare Your Healthcare Staff

Your workers can be more secure in the latest workflow if they can plan ahead of time. Get the preparation assistance company. The agency would understand how to prepare for the modified workflow, providing recommendations that suit your institution’s unique needs. If everybody is well trained, the margin of error will decrease.

Until the system runs, you will be less likely to face difficulties. It is doable to use the time saved via Telehealth Technology for training hospital staff.

Speak to the staff on whether you’re going to be available for telehealth appointments. Discuss the patient scheduling system, online patient scheduling, and how to access the information you need for each patient visit.

Clarify who will be the first to meet the patient as they join the visit. E.g., you might want a medical assistant to ask any initial questions before you enter a video call. Having a proper action plan will ready the team members for a smooth transition. Keep a checklist of your key goals and set deadlines depending on what’s essential.

Create a schedule that focuses on making process changes regularly before the device goes live. It will help ease tension and make the employees feel more relaxed with the latest workflow while introducing telemedicine technologies.

Much like a face-to-face appointment, interactive experiences begin well before the electronic data interchange when the patient meets with their doctor and stretches to the past when they hang up. Create a workflow that uses the office workers to preload the patient appointment scheduling information to ensure that patients are ready when they arrive to see them and the clinicians’ logistical burden. Reducing the pressure on the employees of the workplace is also a crucial concern.

You are not, or can be professional assistance. You’ve got plenty to do with your practice without trying to tackle technological challenges with a telehealth network for your patients. To minimize the likelihood of no-shows and rescheduled appointments due to technical problems, patients need to have convenient access to quick, reliable customer care.

Automated healthcare solutions mean that everyone is in the loop and that the new workers simply have to fill out an application once rather than several. You can fill, mend errors, and get recruits in their positions quicker than ever with improved practice management solutions.

3. Follow-up after a Telehealth Visit

Specifically, some Telehealth platforms use powerful monitoring strategies to monitor patient flow, reduce waiting times, and enhance overall workflow through real-time data collection and reporting.

Telehealth technology etiquette could be unfamiliar to patients and services. Don’t hesitate to recognize incoming patients, check the patient’s name, and make sure the patient’s devices are functioning. Improved efficiency and enhanced flexibility in the procurement of follow-up services are additional primary advantages of telehealth.

Specialists and case management are widely using telehealth for post-discharge treatment to deliver more reliable and effective care within each department’s current workflow. Optimized health care management ensures that the pacing and quality of care are delivered safely and accurately.

By exploring where and how to incorporate telehealth with current workflows, the hospital will provide better value to patients, providers, and specialists at any step of the patient’s path. Telehealth will enhance the new ED workflow and increase connectivity and collaboration between on-site services and off-site clinicians. Providers will still need to contact an on-call specialist; on-call experts will even need to offer advice.

However, it can significantly shorten the time taken to reach a consultant. Minutes or hours usually wasted by workers trying to get in touch with a doctor are saved.

4. Mapping Workflow Optimization

Finally, it is critical to have a straightforward, sustainable funding model for building your healthcare workflow analysis. Are you going to use a payment model, insurance, or both? Telehealth technology, who can work out the telehealth billing codes? As with schedules, it is crucial to interact clearly with your staff to introduce new tasks and responsibilities.

Evaluate the modified process since integrating telehealth technology. Is the latest series of procedures that sets the team members up for success, or does it weigh them down? Speak to the workers about the latest workflow and be able to change the duties accordingly.

Workflow mapping requires communications with healthcare staff and providers to find responses for queries like:

• Informing rural people about the availability of telehealth platforms
• Introduction of the remote practitioner to the patients
• Coordination of follow-up care
• Rural patient information management

Flexibility will refine the telemedicine infrastructure and drive the team to progress. The goal is to improve access to high-quality treatment while enhancing the workflow for your staff members.

Take this into consideration when you implement your new framework to the moment you go online and beyond.

5. Standardize your Telehealth Visit

There is a range of telehealth solutions available regarding quality, protection, accessibility, and price. Still, when you find a solution that suits your needs, everybody needs to use the same method to reduce complexity.

Each provider uses a different framework, requiring the office workers to look for the information necessary within various platforms. Not to mention handling different medical workflows and fielding problems with each disparate system- what a nightmare! When made on the same network and connected to medical informatics, the streamlined telehealth technology implementation will ensure the clinicians and staff are on the same board.

The benefits of telehealth are more than mere video communication. Why do you have multiple contact mechanisms? Because you can use one that helps you communicate individually, with reference doctors and friends, and with patients.

Treatment shortages emerge as health care teams are required to navigate a complex network of diverse solutions. You should be able to handle any step of the virtual visit process, including submitting appointment updates to patients, recording and billing meetings, and post-visit follow-up, or new patient visits, all from the same location.

The important thing in healthcare workflow is providing sufficient evidence of your telehealth experiences, particularly when insurance companies are looking to impose restrictions.

Accurate, detailed monitoring and documentation functionality would be essential to ensuring that you earn full refunds. Both calls can be time-stamped and connected to a particular patient profile, making it easier to have evidence of all experiences.

6. Clinical Workflow Integration

With help from advanced telehealth solutions such as EHR and telehealth integration, high-quality telehealth technology enables patients quick access to urgent care clinics while improving your clinic workflow.

When choosing a telehealth network, it is essential to ensure that it has a good safety base. Protecting electronically protected health information (EPHI) requires the introduction of fair and adequate protections, which fall into two different categories.

Telemedicine security safeguards require ensuring a proper balance of technical and administrative protections in place. Home telehealth technology will play a significant part in the patient workflow and delivering targeted care. Although this is not a novel idea for most clinicians, this medium has moved from a good one to a must-have patient visit solution.

Providers can protect PHI data from external threats through the implementation of certified standards. The telehealth framework can be incorporated smoothly into the provider’s workflow through streamlined procedure and infrastructure refinements, revised policy guidance, and personnel training.

There is growing evidence that waiting times associated with visiting a doctor are on the increase. The remote health monitoring system will eliminate these time delays, increase the speed of treatment, effectively improve outcomes, and eventually save lives. Such an integrated healthcare solution also improves patient engagement systems.

Conclusion

Thousands of physicians, clinics, and hospitals undertake clinical workflow analysis for telehealth technology for workflow optimization. These tips and custom telehealth software solutions make the value and comparative benefit healthcare professionals gained from their investment a convincing healthcare process automation.

The COVID-19 response plays a vital role in virtual and remote healthcare. The telehealth platform is a modern technology for many providers, and new technology involves new workflows. During the COVID-19 pandemic, make sure to place aside some mindful time to strengthen the telehealth workflow. At the same time, you move into new work routines such as rural telemedicine.

Clinic workflow optimization is everything when it comes to using telehealth technology efficiently. Integrating telehealth into the EHR system will help to optimize healthcare workflows for healthcare providers. The majority of telehealth providers are now designing technologies that fit standard patient electronic health records programs, enhancing patient safety and interoperability.

References:

https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/evaluation-resources/workflow-assessment-health-it-toolkit/workflow
https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/telehealth-best-practices-building-a-long-term-workflow
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/telehealth-enhancing-workflows-and-optimizing-care.html
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/4-ways-telemedicine-changing-healthcare
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1532046409000513
https://www.talix.com/telehealth-security-and-workflow-optimization/
https://www.hhmglobal.com/knowledge-bank/articles/telehealth-the-key-to-improving-physician-workflow-and-patient-care
https://tigerconnect.com/blog/3-tips-better-clinical-workflows-healthcare/
https://telehealth.hhs.gov/providers/planning-your-telehealth-workflow/
https://www.mobius.md/blog/2020/06/how-to-improve-your-telehealth-workflow/