Office visits8/23/2023 I was privileged to be part of the team at Modernizing Medicine that developed a fully integrated audio-video telehealth platform. When Medicare released its interim final rule on March 30, it included a relaxation of these restrictions and barriers to access as a means of ensuring that physicians could continue delivering care to their patients despite the need for physical distancing. Simply put, it was not practical or remunerative in most geographic areas. Until the national emergency declaration in response to COVID, the payment and regulatory environments were an impediment to widespread adoption of telehealth. “When the executive order to shelter in place went into effect, I did not have a telehealth solution in place. Overall, the message is clear: Patients aren’t thrilled about visiting their doctors in person at this point, but they’re willing to do it if it can’t be avoided-but only if you’re taking all the necessary precautions to minimize risks in your office.Ĭase stories: Quick adaptation during the initial wave This is great news for medical providers who already adopted telemedicine as a tool to continue seeing patients during the first COVID-19 wave, and it’s clear evidence that those practices should continue offering remote appointments to patients for the foreseeable future.įinally, we asked patients if they would outright refuse an in-person appointment with a medical provider who wasn’t following local safety requirements, and a compelling two-thirds said they would. While only 35% of the entire sample said they had used telemedicine since March, of those respondents, 57% said they want to use it more often, and 12% said they want to use it exclusively moving forward. We asked patients how they feel about using telemedicine during the pandemic, and their responses support this strategy. Plus, it comes with tons of benefits for both you and your patients-not the least of which is reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus. If you’re trying to figure out how to see patients without having them come into your office, telemedicine is your answer. However, there’s a very simple and easy software solution to this problem. Only 16% of patients are “completely comfortable” seeing healthcare providers in-person right now, and over half said they were “minimally comfortable” or “not at all comfortable” being in a doctor’s office at this time. When we asked patients questions related to how comfortable they are with seeing doctors in-person, the answers were not entirely surprising considering what we know about COVID-19 and how to avoid it. Patients aren’t entirely comfortable with in-person office visits about their experience with reopening their offices and the types of precautions that they have implemented. In addition to speaking with patients about their preferences, we also spoke with doctors across the U.S. We also asked about their preferences for which sanitary and safety protocols medical practices such as yours must follow when reopening in order to make them feel as safe as possible. patients * to learn about their comfort level with resuming in-person doctor’s office visits. That means following medical guidelines and adopting new sanitary protocols, but it also means effectively communicating new practices to your patients and enforcing adherence. In those situations, it’s critical that you’re doing everything you can to protect patients (and your own staff) from exposure during office visits. Because of this, healthcare providers are having to consider reopening medical practices. Officials are urging people to avoid activities that could potentially spread the virus, but there are many people who cannot stop seeing their doctors altogether. While there are some promising vaccine trials in progress now, the truth is that the country is still very much in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
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