Telehealth Before, During & After COVID-19

Sometimes,innovation is driven by necessity. The worst global health crisis in 100 yearsforced the healthcare community to change where and how it cares for patients,and telehealth has risen to play a number of critical roles during the COVID-19pandemic.

Healthcareorganizations are now using high-quality video to:

• Provide care to patients directly in their homes
• Enable providers to continue seeing patients and keep theirpractices open
• Assemble global teams of medical experts for consultation andcollaboration
• Allow frontline healthcare workers to examine patients remotelyto conserve PPE and reduce their risk of exposure

With providers nowseeing 50 to 175 times more patients via telehealth since thepandemic started, many in the healthcare industry believe that telehealth hasevolved more in six months than in the last decade. Let's take a look at howthe pandemic has changed how we think about healthcare, and what we can expectpost-COVID.

Before COVID:Barriers to adoption

Telehealth has beenaround for decades, but direct-to-consumer adoption didn't take off untilrecently. When most people got sick, they went to the doctor's office insteadof logging on for a video visit that's just how it was.

Some providers werereluctant to adopt telehealth, fearing it was unreliable or would affect theirbottom line. And while most patients who tried telehealth liked it, the technology simply wasn't widespread enough toattract more than 11 percent of consumers in 2019.

During COVID: Telehealthtransformation

That all changedwhen the pandemic hit. Medical facilities and private practices closed, and noone knew when they'd be able to reopen.

Health systemsquickly spun up new telehealth solutions or expanded existing programs to ensurecontinuity of care for their patients. In the U.S., nearly 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries received carevirtually in the week ending April 18, 2020, compared to just 11,000 visits inthe week ending March 7 days before pandemic restrictions were put in place.

Bringing healthcareinto the home

Using technology toreach people directly in their homes during the pandemic didn't just reducecoronavirus spread, it revolutionized the way providers treat patients.Telehealth has become essential to:

• Providing primary and urgent care for commonailments like colds and earaches without exposing patients to the coronavirus
• Conducting mental health appointments
• Triaging patients with COVID-19 symptoms from home
• Remotely monitoring patients with chronic conditions like heartdisease or diabetes
• Supporting healthy lifestyle changes, such as weight managementor medication adherence

Virtual visits haveplayed a role in reducing no-shows and appointment cancellations, which costthe industry billions of dollars a year, and nearly 75 percent of telehealth patients reported highsatisfaction with their experience.

Telehealth forinpatient care

As coronaviruscases surged across Canada, some hospitals and medical centres used telehealthfor inpatient care as a way to prioritize the safety and well-being of patientsand medical staff:

• Virtual rounding reduced the number of frontlineworkers entering a patient's room by allowing doctors to see and treat patientsfrom the hallway using mobile devices
• Hospitals could bring in specialists from around the world tovirtually consult on a patient's care
• Family members could stay involved with patient care, askquestions and communicate virtually with providers
• In the most difficult situations, including end-of-life care,video communications gave family members the ability to spend precious timewith their loved ones in the hospital

Other telehealthbenefits

Expandingtelehealth helped strengthen public health systems and improve health equity byreaching populations that have long been underserved or struggled with accessto care. People living in rural areas, patients lacking reliable transportationor the ability to take time off work, and those with medical conditions that madeit difficult to leave the house can now get care when and how it's mostconvenient for them.

After COVID:Preparing for the future of telehealth

We don't know whenthe COVID-19 pandemic will be over, or what the world will look like once itis. What most experts agree on is that 2020 has transformed the global medicallandscape. Patients and providers alike are now more familiar and comfortable withtelehealth, so it's hard to imagine asking them to go back to the way thingswere.

So, what canproviders do to prepare for the future of healthcare? First, assume the demandfor telehealth is only going to grow. Consumer adoption of telehealth more thantripled from 11 percent in 2019 to 46 percent as of April 2020, and Frost & Sullivan predicts the telehealth marketwill see a sevenfold growth rate by 2025.

If you deployedyour telehealth program in response to COVID-19, now's the time to move yourapproach from reactionary to strategic. Continue to build a competitive programof telehealth capabilities and offerings, enabled by a robust digital platform,to reach more patients and gain market share.

Your telehealthsolution should:

• Have high-quality, reliable audio and video, so you can communicate with, examine, diagnose, monitor and treat patients virtually, even those with low bandwidth or outdated devices
• Meet all your clinical and administrative needs, including integration with patient charts, medical devices, diagnostic tools and other clinical applications, to streamline patient care
• Enable HIPAA/PIPEDA compliance, with rigourous attention to keeping patient data secure and private
• Have a user-friendly, easy-to-access experience that accommodates all patients, including those with special accessibility needs and low digital literacy
• Offer flexible options and capabilities that support your practice's customized workflows

Telehealth willcontinue to play a major role in a hybrid model of care that emphasizestreating patients where and how they prefer at home, on the go, or in person.With this shift, the industry will reduce costs, waste fewer resources,increase access to care and improve patient outcomes.

Learn moreabout Zoomsolutions for telehealth at CDW.ca/Zoom