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
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
    Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
    July 20, 2025
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 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
    ACOs expanding
    ACOs Rapidly Expanding Across States
    May 2, 2014
    Nursing Experts Release Guiding Principles for Patient Engagement
    July 20, 2012
    ACO infographic
    A Closer Look at Accountable Care Organizations [INFOGRAPHIC]
    June 5, 2014
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Top 5 Misconceptions Holding Back the Use of Televideo in Healthcare
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 > Top 5 Misconceptions Holding Back the Use of Televideo in Healthcare
eHealthHome HealthMedical InnovationsMobile HealthRemote DiagnosticsTechnology

Top 5 Misconceptions Holding Back the Use of Televideo in Healthcare

PeterEggleston
PeterEggleston
Share
8 Min Read
SHARE

Until recently, the specialized equipment, complexity and expensive network infrastructure required by video, as well as poor Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement policies made it impractical to utilize televideo technologies for the delivery of care unless the patient was a great distance from the doctor.  Now, changing reimbursement models and the addition of low-cost desktop PC based televideo technologies, is making it easy and cost effective to utilize televideo in a wider array of patient and inter-clinician interactions.

Until recently, the specialized equipment, complexity and expensive network infrastructure required by video, as well as poor Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement policies made it impractical to utilize televideo technologies for the delivery of care unless the patient was a great distance from the doctor.  Now, changing reimbursement models and the addition of low-cost desktop PC based televideo technologies, is making it easy and cost effective to utilize televideo in a wider array of patient and inter-clinician interactions. However, as SBR Health has learned over the past six months in talking with scores of health delivery organizations across the U.S, there are still many issues holding back the wider adoption and scale up of the use of televideo in the delivery of healthcare services.  More importantly, we discovered that some of these issues were actually entwined with misconceptions that were leading to the failure to successfully deploy televideo to a wider audience.

 

Misconception #1: If televideo were cheaper, it would be more widely adopted.

More Read

Turning Health Data into Health Narrative: Interview with Dr. Leslie Saxon on Digital Health
Can Aromatherapy Help You Relax and Fall Asleep at Night?
V-Go™ Disposable No-Needle Insulin Delivery Device Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance to use Valeritas Drug
International Student Design Contest for Medical Technology
5 Questions With Dave Chase, CEO of Avado

This is sort of like saying if airplanes were cheap enough, everyone could buy one and commute into work. If you gave airplanes to everyone, this would still not solve the commute issue as how do people utilize the airplanes, where do they take off and land, how do you manage the air traffic, how do you train them to fly, etc. The real issue is congestion on the highways which lead to slow commute times, so what is needed is not cheaper forms of transportation, rather ways to reduce traffic congestion.  In a similar regard, there are lots of free televideo technologies out in the marketplace, so expense is really a non-issue. The real issue is that the industry needs solutions that embody visual communications to facilitate the delivery of care in a more efficient and effective manner, NOT low cost televideo technology.

 

Misconception #2:  Televideo technology is complex & difficult to use.

The real issue is that the traditional televideo technology available from the major vendors is complex, and not user friendly. Even my dad can use Skype video. He sees my picture in his address book, clicks on me, and we are in a code chat session.  The real issue is that current televideo solutions, both the expensive high end hardware based systems and the low cost or free SIP based systems, do not overlay onto the existing clinical workflows. We found that a major factor holding back the use of televideo in delivery care was the lack of integration with currently established protocols and workflows, not an ease of use issue.

 

Misconception #3:  Patients prefer in-person encounters.

In our market research we heard many stories of consumer preferences for televideo consults ranging from prison patients who prefer virtual rather than in person mental therapy, to busy parents that wanted to be able to video conference in to a consult with a nurse to discuss an ill child at school. Bottom line, it seems that what patients want is easier and quicker access to their care providers, and there are many instances where patients can’t or won’t travel into an ambulatory setting to see a physician either for a minor complaint, post-discharge follow-up, or chronic issue management, but they will show up for a virtual visit. In fact, one VA organization reported to us that they achieved almost 100% appointment adherence using televideo. As a recent John Hopkins study found that most health practices average a 42% no-show, you can clearly see that there is a huge untapped potential to use televideo to achieve more efficient use of physician resources just by eliminating no shows alone.

 

Misconception #4: If it is not reimbursable, then it doesn’t make sense to do it.

This one we found to be a real red herring.  We discovered that in our encounters, organizations that were successfully deploying televideo at large scales had discovered operational efficiencies and business development benefits through the greater access provided with televideo technologies. This included increasing marketshare in rural and remote areas resulting in greater specialist utilization and patient referrals/transfers, freeing up doctors to spend more time treating sicker patients, eliminating down time for no shows, and losing less money on encounters they do not get fully reimbursed for. Additionally, integrated health delivery organizations and organizations transitioning to encounters of care, accountable care and patient centered medical home models are all successfully and rapidly expanding their services and clinical care models through the use of televideo technologies.

 

Misconception #5:  Simple web conferencing can be used to deliver virtual clinic encounters.

One very strong pattern we noticed was that organizations who first deploy televideo, typically treat the encounter as a form of web or video conferencing, and that many of these initiatives fail to ‘take’ with clinicians and patients alike. The issue seems to be that their use of televideo in this manner does not fit their model of care. For instance, when utilizing larger legacy video conferencing technologies, physicians had to set aside blocks of time to do the virtual encounters, patients and doctors had to go to prescribed locations to do the virtual visit, and many issues arose over how to reschedule video connections and physical room locations when doctors ran late. When attempting to use lighter weight Skype like technologies, issues arose over how to make calls secure and authenticate users, prevent patients from calling at anytime, and how to maintain continuity when the doctor or patient is late to a call. For use in ad hoc specialist consults, there were added issues of how to route the calls to the right specialist, how to find the covering specialist, and how to handle transfer, queuing and forwarding of video calls.  In short, you can’t view the encounter as a video conference – you have to view this as a clinical encounter that utilizes video as a communication modality, and the technology has to overlay and compliment the workflows rather than dictating them.

 

TAGGED:telehealthtelevideovideo doctorvirtual visit
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

technology in medical research
The Tools Helping Medical Researchers See the Full Picture
News Technology
August 3, 2025
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
Health
July 31, 2025
holistic dental
Holistic Dentist Services Are Natural and Safe
Dental health Specialties
July 28, 2025
botox certification
Help Improve People’s Skin Health Via Botox Certification
Skin Specialties
July 22, 2025

You Might also Like

Cue the Confetti! Startups Can Begin Soliciting Investors on Monday

September 22, 2013

How Meetup Can Magnify Your Hospital’s Public Presence

September 10, 2014

OIG Looking at Mis-Coding of E and M Claims

November 3, 2014

A Mobile Imaging Efficiency Showdown: CR vs. DR [VIDEO]

July 26, 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?