Telemedicines Popularity Dictated By Provider’s Attitudes

Telemedicines popularity is due to providers who believe that remote consultations with their patients are more effective compared to in-house visits.

Partners Healthcare Systems looked at the use of electronic consultations for anesthesiology in the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System.

In the system’s hospitals, telemedicine consultations have grown in recent years, with 50 times more telemedicine consultations in anesthesiology in 2015 compared to 2012. These consultations made workflows more efficient, whereas at sites with less use, clinicians preferred direct-patient interactions.

Telemedicines Popularity: Pros And Cons

Clinicians who prefer electronic consultations found that it not only helped with efficiency, but it also helped patients. A diagnosis is made sooner than if the patient had come in for a pre-op visit. It reduces time to surgery since they don’t have to have a separate visit just for scheduling lab tests.

But other clinicians found telemedicine consultations to be cold. “I find it very impersonal when you walk in five minutes before the procedure and say, ‘Hey, I am your anesthesiologist and you are going to go to sleep, and I am going to give you the same drug that Michael Jackson got,’ ” said one of the doctors, as quoted in the study.

Conclusion

Telemedicine consultations are rising and will be widely adopted, despite some clinician reservations. It’s the wave of the now and into the future as the health care industry shifts towards value-based care. Telemedicine popularity is due to improving access while controlling costs under new and evolving payment models.