Advantages and Disadvantages of Telehealth: What Your Patients Need to Know

Telehealth has certainly earned its place in our society, and it has helped many, many patients, both mentally and physically.

Telehealth certainly was a lifesaver during the COVID-19 crisis, helping people fight through depression, loneliness, and so much more during the lockdowns. In fact, many people are still using telehealth services instead of going to the emergency room or their doctors when they can.

However, your patients may not completely understand what telehealth is and how it can help them. Here are a few of the things that your patients need to know.

What Can You Do at a Telehealth Appointment?

There are quite a few things that a telehealth appointment can be used for. We’ll discuss a few of those things below.

Your patient can record their height, weight, food intake, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and more for their telehealth appointment by doing it manually or wearing a device, then sending the information to the doctor before the appointment begins. This will save you and your patient quite a bit of time and hassle as well.

Patients can have a virtual visit, use the online portal to check test results and prescriptions, and can share information with you.

The Advantages of Telehealth for Your Patients

There are quite a few advantages for your patients when it comes to using telehealth medicine. Not only does it save your patients and your office money, but it also is more convenient and allows people with limited mobility or those who live in rural areas to have a doctor’s appointment without having to try to get to a brick-and-mortar office.

With the advent of the COVID-19 virus, the most significant advantage of telehealth medicine became extremely apparent, as it saved many lives of the people who were immuno-compromised as it kept them from having to travel to a doctor and risk being exposed to the virus, which could have easily been fatal for those people.

The Disadvantages of Telehealth for Your Patients

As with anything else in the world today, while there are plenty of life-saving advantages to telehealth medicine for your patient, there are also a few disadvantages that bear talking about. Many experts and patients feel that in-person visits are the better option.

One disadvantage of virtual visits is that the security of people’s personal data is done over the internet, and in some cases, it might not be as secure as you would like. Though you can take every precaution, you never know what could happen on the web. Also, it isn’t possible to have every visit through a telehealth appointment. Things such as bloodwork and other lab tests still have to be done in person.

One of the biggest downsides to telehealth so far is that not all insurance providers will cover the cost of the virtual visit, which means that many patients end up having to pay out of pocket, and most people just can’t afford that expense.

These are a few of the disadvantages, but the advantages seem to outweigh them enough for most patients to still like the telehealth visits, especially those who are limited as to when they can get to the doctor or are too sick to actually leave the house.

Telehealth medicine isn’t a new invention, but it has become even more popular due to the COVID-19 virus and all of the other sicknesses that are seeming to go along with that pandemic. If your patient has questions about this type of service, it’s best to sit and answer them before they schedule their first appointment.