By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    headphones can create health problems
    The Harmful Health Effects of Using Headphones
    September 24, 2021
    Headache causes
    4 Causes Of Headache You Probably Didn’t Know About
    December 28, 2021
    follow these steps to recover from your injury
    What Steps Should You Take to Recover More Quickly from an Injury?
    April 12, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    private
    Private Exchanges: Getting Ready for Individual Health Insurance to Be the Standard
    January 9, 2014
    valueable healthcare programs
    5 Most Valuable Healthcare Programs in 2023
    March 8, 2023
    Johnson & Johnson to Release Clinical Trial Data in Agreement with Yale Medical School
    February 4, 2014
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: 3 Doctor’s Telemedicine Questions Answered
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Wellness > Home Health > 3 Doctor’s Telemedicine Questions Answered
eHealthHome HealthMedical InnovationsMobile HealthRemote Diagnostics

3 Doctor’s Telemedicine Questions Answered

JTRipton
JTRipton
Share
7 Min Read
SHARE

There is no way around it, if you are a rural hospital then you represent one of the most endangered hospitals out there today. In fact, there are 673 hospitals that are in danger of shutting down due to financial vulnerability, with 62 hospitals shuttered since 2010, according to iVantageIndex. This is out of a total of 2,078 rural hospitals today, so the situation is anything but good. While the reasons for these closures may vary: from staff shortages and equipment underuse to the reduced populations in many rural areas. Fortunately, emerging technologies like telemedicine offer a unique way for health care providers to bridge the healthcare gap that the eminent closure of more rural hospitals threatens to create. Telemedicine isn’t just a new technology in many of these rural areas, but one that is necessary for these areas to maintain some quality of care. It can be a major inconvenience for anyone, but particularly the sick or elderly, to drive hours just to receive the care that they need, and having telemedicine services available to take care of many of the appointments that would otherwise require hours of travel can make this care far easier. Additionally, patients are far more likely to schedule required medical appointments when that appointment is able to easily fit into their schedule, something that telemedicine easily allows. Healthcare professionals are understandably interested in this technology, and are asking plenty of questions about its capabilities today. Here are some of the questions that you might be asking yourself as you consider the use of telemedicine within rural communities. What types of appointments can be scheduled via telehealth? Any new system that is put into use in the healthcare industry has its benefits and drawbacks, and telehealth is no different. While it might be a great service for many different needs, when starting out with its’ use, you may want to scale back the types of appointments that you offer with telehealth. For rural patients, you might want to focus primarily on check-ups and regular follow-up appointments rather than start by immediately using the full suite of options available on your telehealth system, at least until you understand the capabilities better. That being said, telehealth can offer rural communities a number of options when it comes to getting medical treatment. This includes more advanced services like ongoing remote monitoring of in-home care, mobile imaging and lab specimen collection services, behavioral and mental health care options, and mobile imaging analysis of X-rays, just to name a few. The key to the ability to offer these things is the ability of telehealth services to make use of HD video and audio chat on all types of connections, regardless of speed. This is particularly true in rural areas, where internet connections run at a fraction of the speeds that are offered in most major cities. Cutting edge video chat technologies like those found at communication company Agora.io underpin most advanced telemedicine platforms today. As noted by Agora.io CEO Tony Zhao, “When implementing video chat functionality into your telemedicine app, that’s meant to connect and diagnose patients halfway around the world, it’s important that the signal is exceptionally strong regardless of where they are, what kind of network they’re on, be it 3G/4G or WiFi or the stability of that country’s infrastructure, because if the video is unclear and choppy, then there is no point to your international telemedicine app.” Even if you aren’t transmitting internationally, slow connection speeds cripple many rural networks, making the capability of your telemedicine software that much more important. How can telehealth benefit my patients? Telehealth provides a direct benefit to patients by giving them an alternative to a trip to a doctor that can take 4-6 hours in some cases. This not only allows patients to get what they need on their schedule, but reduces the rate of no-shows as well. On top of that, it can allow patients to get access to critical specialty care faster by using telemedicine, as evidenced by an Alaskan community that saw a greater than 31% drop in the time it took to schedule an appointment with an ENT practitioner. If you are concerned about the risk to the quality of care that you can provide via telemedicine, multiple studies have found that there is no loss of care quality by utilizing telemedicine. How can telehealth benefit my practice? Beyond the benefits that can accrue by reducing no-shows, telemedicine allows you to streamline your day far more by accepting patients over a secure video chat. This has been shown to improve the speed at which you can see each patient, with less stress on your office personnel. By using telemedicine in your hospital or practice, particularly with rural patients, you can improve the quality of care that your patients get by ensuring that they have more regular access to the specialists that they need, and you can use telemedicine to provide an increasingly wide variety of services to rural patients as well. One key aspect of this improvement is the improvement in video quality that can be seen on telemedicine services today, which allows rural patients with poor internet or data connections to receive the same level of care quality, even at lower bandwidth. Are you thinking of using telemedicine to better connect with your rural patients? Sound off on your concerns in the comments.

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Allows Patients to View Charts and Info in Real Time

March 20, 2012

Person-Centered HealthCare: How mHealth Technologies Are Benefiting Patients

May 10, 2013

Expect The Unexpected: Rajiv Mehta and the Caregiving Journey

September 28, 2012

Reimagining the Electronic Medical Record

February 1, 2014
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?