Last Updated | March 11, 2024
How Telehealth Urgent Care Reduces Casualties
In a post-pandemic world, our lives radically differ from what they were before. Education, entertainment, communication, and healthcare have changed. From this, we’ve seen the rise and widespread acceptance of telehealth.
This article will discuss how healthcare professionals keep in touch with patients remotely. The fact that telehealth urgent care reduces casualties, still unbeknownst to many, will be expounded on.
Telehealth Urgent Care – An Overview
We start with a definition, explore how telehealth reduces casualties, what types of diagnoses are possible, what the benefits are, and explore the idea of a telehealth urgent care application. There’s a lot to go around, so stick around to the end to maximize your time.
What Is Telehealth Urgent Care?
We can define telehealth urgent care as using technology and the internet to provide healthcare – remotely. A laptop, tablet, or smartphone paired with a stable internet connection allows a healthcare provider to hold an appointment, discuss symptoms, present a diagnosis, and prescribe treatment.
Evolution
There was once a time when many would consider this a utopian dream – not anymore. Telehealth urgent care lets a doctor in India work with a patient in Brazil. The term itself is an umbrella with various facets under it. Each year, the barriers to telehealth implementation are continuously dealt with, making it more accessible.
Many of these have evolved, refining the process and bringing it to where it is now. We saw telehealth take off during the pandemic when lockdowns kept us in our homes, unable to move around freely. The pandemic is behind us, but telehealth is here to stay.
Telehealth urgent care lets patients skip waiting room fatigue and receive health care on their chosen schedule. This allows them to squeeze essential checkups into busy schedules without making commutes or spending time waiting. This subsequently improves accessibility to healthcare for people with transportation issues or those who live in remote areas.
Components
There are four components of telehealth: healthcare professionals, patients, devices, and the internet. Patients use Zoom or Skype for appointments and email or instant messages for correspondence. This allows them to get treatment from the comfort of their home, office, or any location with a stable internet connection.
These components allow patients to get virtual consultations, remote monitoring, and electronic prescriptions. This trifecta of treatment lets healthcare professionals use their skills at scale for several patients globally, reducing casualties remotely.
For a healthcare provider or facility to remain current, it must follow a telehealth implementation guide. This gives them all the tools and knowledge necessary to complete the job.
How Telehealth Urgent Care Reduces Casualties
Using telehealth, healthcare professionals leverage improved patient access to provide timely healthcare, diagnose patients, and prescribe treatment. More specifically, telehealth urgent care reduces casualties thanks to:
Access
Many areas of the world lack access to what they need. Regions with limited access to quality healthcare are just what telehealth aims to facilitate. Patients who live in rural areas only need a smart device with a camera and mic, knowledge of their condition, and an internet connection.
Using this, doctors treat patients to the best of their ability with what the patient has provided. The simplicity allows telehealth for urgent care for people with limited access to the facility. Telehealth in rural areas is a godsend for residents who need life-saving treatment.
Senior citizens, patients with mobility impairments, and parents who can’t leave children unattended are demographics that benefit the most from telehealth. You never have to wonder if there is telehealth urgent care near me because it is available everywhere with an internet connection.
Timelines
If you have an urgent care telehealth appointment, you receive treatment much sooner than going to a clinic or hospital. This is ideal for patients with conditions that must be diagnosed early on, preventing them from becoming life-threatening illnesses.
By eliminating waiting room time, urgent care with telehealth makes all the sense for patients needing non-urgent treatment. It is worth noting that emergencies still require a visit to the ER, and relying on telehealth does little to alleviate severe symptoms.
Early Treatment
With a virtual consultation, doctors review patient records, medical history, and symptoms, allowing them to begin formulating a diagnosis based on the information they have. This lets them find solutions for problems before they grow, making the patient’s life easier. Tele-testing directly prompts early treatment measures that allow for implementation or adjustments to treatment plans.
Regarding healthcare, it is always better to be proactive instead of reactive. You want to be on top of an issue instead of dealing with the consequences of a condition. Telehealth allows you to get treatment for issues you’ve overlooked because of commute issues. One study showed that telehealth urgent care reduced ER visits by 30%!
What Can Be Diagnosed Via Telehealth Urgent Care
The most important question with telehealth is what is treatable and the difference between telehealth and in-person care. With telehealth, a wide variety of ailments are treatments that include:
| Respiratory Illnesses | Cold and flu symptoms, allergies, sinusitis, |
| Minor Injuries | Sprains, strains, minor cuts, burns |
| Skin Conditions | Acne, rashes, eczema, common infections |
| Urinary Tract Infections | |
| Gastrointestinal Issues | Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea |
| Eye Infections | Pink eye (conjunctivitis) |
| Ear Infections | Especially in children |
| Mental Health Issues | Anxiety, depression, follow-up consultations |
The general theme of illnesses is those that don’t require you to be physically present. It also includes ailments that don’t need immediate expert intervention. Telehealth helps diagnose various diseases, but we must also acknowledge its limitations.
Limitations Of Telehealth Urgent Care
The three main limitations of telehealth urgent care include:
In-Person Examinations
Several conditions require the patient to be present in person. Doctors must touch the affected area, run physical tests, extract samples, check reflexes, and more. This isn’t possible with telehealth urgent care.
Diagnostic Tools Limitations
Telehealth relies on what the patient describes and the records in front of them. Even with remote testing capabilities, some conditions require the patient to be available in person. This lets the doctor conduct more in-depth examinations with the right tools.
Technological Limitations
The biggest hurdle for telehealth is an unstable internet connection. It can break communication or reduce it to a laggy mess. This completely defeats the purpose of using telehealth urgent care to begin with.
Benefits of Using Telehealth Urgent Care
To understand why telehealth urgent care is as essential as we have made it out to be, here are the benefits of using telehealth urgent care:
Convenience
The main benefit of telehealth urgent care is how convenient it is. Patients and healthcare providers can communicate remotely from the comfort of their homes or workplaces, during travel, or anywhere they find a stable internet connection. This is perfect for people with busy schedules, transportation issues, or mobility limitations. You can also get pediatric telehealth urgent care for your children.
Furthermore, telehealth urgent care appointment scheduling allows you to work according to your schedule. Patients and healthcare providers can interact outside of traditional times without logistical limitations. Make sure you discuss this availability with your healthcare provider.
Savings
With telehealth, all concerned parties are saving time and money. The patient saves on the cost of travel, parking, time off work, babysitting, and the comfort of their homes. Certain insurance providers may also cover telehealth urgent care – it’s best to speak with your insurance provider to learn more.
Telehealth also lets doctors reduce overhead expenditure. This includes rent, utilities, and other miscellaneous expenses with a physical space. Doctors can also attend to a larger audience with remote consultations, translating to improved profitability. It is a win-win for everyone involved.
Patient Satisfaction
The central premise of telehealth is to bridge the gap between patient and treatment. It allows patients to get treatment from a convenient and comfortable location. Consultations and diagnosis are done more efficiently, making life more accessible for people with other commitments.
Telehealth improves patient satisfaction by conducting appointments where the patient is comfortable. Hospitals and clinics are gloomy environments that many people find uncomfortable. If the patient is in their bedroom or living room, they will be more relaxed, allowing them to converse better with their healthcare provider.
A report by Statista revealed that 82% of respondents found telehealth visits to be more time-effective compared to in-person visits.
How Can We Develop a Telehealth Urgent Care App
As convenient as telehealth already is, it can go further. One of the best methods of implementing telehealth in primary care is by creating a telehealth urgent care application. With billions of active mobile devices that connect to the internet, the potential and benefits of such an application are immense.
The process of telehealth app development plays an essential role in creating an application that closes the gap between a patient and the treatment they need. A telehealth application breathes life into the benefits of telehealth urgent care and puts it in the hands of everyone wanting to get treatment.
The Features Of A Telehealth Urgent Care Application
You need the right features to build the best telehealth urgent care app. These features are grouped into three categories: essentials, user experience, and regulatory. For a successful telehealth application, this is how those features look like:
Essential Features
The essential features that every telehealth urgent care application needs include:
Video-Conferencing
This facilitates the face-to-face interaction between the patient and the healthcare provider. It lets the doctor see the patient and identify any potential symptoms. The application should offer a reliable, high-quality video experience. Add crisp audio transmission and a simple user interface to round it off.
Secure Instant Messaging
This feature would allow a safe and secure flow of information between doctor and patient. This includes medical records, test results, prescription refills, follow-up care, and more. The communication needs to be seamless and secure for optimal results.
Appointment Scheduling
With this, patients should have access to a calendar to show them the right time and date for an appointment. It shows when the doctor is available, helping the patient pick a time that works best for both parties. This feature in the app makes it easier for patients to get care and improves the overall patient experience.
Health Record Integration
For the application to succeed, you need all stakeholders in telehealth implementation to be involved. The application needs to be integrated with major electronic health record systems. This lets the doctor access all the relevant information they may need to diagnose.
User Experience
The app needs to work as is expected of it. The user experience design (UX) is an integral part of that. The main features of this include:
Interface
It needs to be straightforward. This lets both the patient and healthcare professional efficiently operate it. The last thing either party wants is a patchy and unreliable interface. Keep it simple, easy to navigate, and easy on the eyes.
Accessibility
The app needs to cater to everyone, including people with disabilities. Many modern smart devices have various accessibility features built into them. These features must be included in the user experience during app development.
Education
The telehealth application needs to have a section with various learning resources. It must also have FAQs to provide quick answers to patients’ common questions. These could range from in-app navigation, how specific treatments work, and even how to administer them.
Regulatory
Your application must also comply with all legal and regulatory requirements. Adherence to said requirements ensures that your application operates as per the law. Common examples of regulations include:
HIPAA Compliance
The HIPAA, or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, has placed safeguards for patient information security. Adhering to the security protocols will ensure that patient data integrity, confidentiality, and availability are as it should be.
Government Regulations
Depending on where you’re based and where the application is available, there will be state and federal regulations to comply with. These regulations are publicly available, and app developers must ensure their applications comply to avoid getting into trouble later.
What Will Be the Cost of Making a Telehealth Urgent Care App
A telehealth urgent care application requires an upfront investment for development. It also requires subsequent investments for updates and enhancements. If you want to know how to start a telehealth business, the two most significant costs are development costs and maintenance costs.
Development Costs
The development costs for a telehealth application include software development, design, application testing, and integration.
Software development
This includes all the coding development of different application functionalities and processes for external systems. Depending on how complex your application is, these costs can differ. Your choice of developers (in-house, agency, freelance) also impacts your choice.
For example, if you want to add a top telehealth trends feature, this would be incredibly effective but come at an extra cost. Different features add up, and expenses can range between $30,000 and $100,000.
App Design
The application needs an intuitive interface. It should be responsive and transparent and not lag or crash. Setting this up depends on developer experience and project complexity—costs range between $5,000 and $15,000.
Testing
After the application is made, it is tested. This is to iron out any bugs that could cause issues later on. The app functionality, security protocols, and compatibility are tested in different situations. Depending on the testing strategy and the testing partner of choice, costs can range between $5,000 and $20,000.
Integration With Existing Systems
Once the application is ready, it is integrated with existing EHR systems. This and other healthcare platforms add costs depending on complexity and the target systems involved. For a practice convenient telehealth app, costs for this process can range from $10,000 to $30,000.
Maintenance Costs
After deployment, the application is out and doing what it is expected to do. However, it needs to be maintained for it to continue working. These maintenance expenses include:
Updates
These updates include bug fixes, performance improvements, new features, security updates, and design updates. Each update has varying complexity, resulting in varying costs.
Server Maintenance
When your application is live, you must pay for the server hosting it and managing its storage. These costs depend on storage needs and the hosting provider of choice.
Tech Support
Users need help if they’re stuck or the application isn’t working. Troubleshooting and other technical assistance come at an additional cost.
Conclusion
Telehealth is the perfect example of technology improving our lives. It bridges the gap between patients and healthcare providers, allowing seamless treatment. Telehealth is an accessible, cost-effective, and efficient way to visit your doctor’s appointment without leaving the house. This process is made simpler when a telehealth application puts all of this functionality in the palm of your hand. Urgent care and telehealth go hand-in-hand making this application the perfect solution.
FAQs
How Does Telehealth Urgent Care Differ From Traditional Urgent Care?
Telehealth urgent care is provided remotely using a smart device and internet connection. It doesn’t require the patient to visit in person.
Can Prescriptions Be Provided Through Telehealth Urgent Care?
Yes. Healthcare providers can provide their patients with prescriptions based on a diagnosis they’ve made.
Are My Medical Records Kept Confidential During Telehealth Consultations?
The HIPAA protects patients’ records, and healthcare providers must ensure they are safe and away from where they shouldn’t be. For example, California telehealth laws are in place to protect your data.
What Should I Do If I Require Follow-Up Care After A Telehealth Consultation?
You can either set up a follow-up appointment during your initial consultation or book a new appointment with the same doctor using your preferred telehealth provider.
Is Telehealth Urgent Care Suitable For All Medical Conditions?
No. Telehealth urgent care is suitable for non-emergency, non-invasive procedures. In case of an emergency, head to the ER.
About the Author
Afnan Ali
Afnan Ali is a digital marketing professional with over 5 years of experience. Afnan's expertise lies in crafting comprehensive digital marketing strategies, with a strong foundation in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as the core. His experience spans various digital marketing channels, including PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, email marketing, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and social media marketing (SMM). This well-rounded skillset allows Afnan to develop and execute data-driven campaigns that achieve measurable results.
