By Lisa Miller

The telemedicine/telehealth sector is growing in the US with a predicted market value of over $130 billion by 2025. That compares to $26.5 billion in 2018. A robust telehealth strategy is vital for every healthcare provider.

The terms telehealth and telemedicine are often used interchangeably but there is a difference in their definition and application. Telemedicine is designed to facilitate remote consultations and clinical services as well as managing chronic conditions and follow-up visits. It is generally patient-centered.

Telehealth technology is often used for clinical and non-clinical services, including provider training, administrative meetings and continuing medical education. It is designed to support and enhance the entire healthcare organization.

Telehealth is far more than a technology that allows patients to be monitored virtually within a hospital by a specialist or at home by a provider. Although these are key areas for hospitals to utilize telehealth for patients to access specialists and for home care – there is so much more. My definition of telehealth is that it is a healthcare strategy to be utilized to dramatically improve the care of patients and communities and to support families who care for patients.

To begin, here are four ways Telehealth can improve hospital operations:

1. Telehealth can aid in reducing hospital readmissions as patient behaviors account for most of the readmissions from medication nonadherence, not scheduling follow-up appointments and, not having access to equipment or supplies.
2. Proactively utilizing telehealth for high-risk patients and for the elderly, to maintain care at home and ensure health outcomes.
3. Innovative areas where telehealth can be used include rehabilitation care, mental health resources, and even second opinions.
4. Telehealth can be used within hospital marketing campaigns to increase awareness and utilization of the service.

Further, here are five opportunities and five strategies to help you further define, develop and deploy a comprehensive telehealth strategy in your organization.


Five questions to ask yourself in order to self-assess your organizations telehealth opportunities:

1. Where do you want to achieve growth in your organization?
2. What is your complex health patient population?
3. Where are the coordination of care opportunities?
4. What are your value based payment models where you can incorporate telehealth for better quality patient outcomes?
5. What new areas of telehealth can you expand into?

Additionally, here are six strategies to utilize to optimize and maximize your organizations telehealth footprint:

1. Make telehealth easy to access and use for patients. Do they understand the process? How can they get billed? The set up process and how do they schedule?
2. Improve your current telehealth applications. Are there areas like scheduling that need to be improved?
3. Look for gaps that need to be filled such as focusing on telehealth for the elderly or tele-rehabilitation services
4. Marketing and communication. Its foundational market and communicate your organizations telehealth capabilities. Patients want educational materials to understand how they can access as much care through real time virtual services and also remote monitoring services.
5. Ensure you are utilizing the correct codes, maximizing the value of the revenue opportunities.
6. Remember telehealth is about expanding care which means an opportunity to expand revenue from greater utilization and from incentive payments from improved quality metrics. It should also be utilized to protect your revenue. Protection from readmission as an example and in most of the cases, unnecessary costs due to a patient coming back to the hospital within 30 days of their original stay. Telehealth can improve the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction scores.

Overall, by increasing patient access to physicians and specialists, telehealth helps people to receive the care they need, when they need it. For healthcare providers, it is a key strategy to manage the health of their patients from a high volume, low-cost perspective.

Telehealth offers hospitals a number of benefits, including:

Enhancing patient care in rural communities: In rural communities, patients can often live hundreds of miles away from access to the care they need, such as primary care doctors, specialists or other providers. Likewise, social workers and care managers for chronic diseases may not be available in smaller communities. In these situations, patients may be required to travel excessive distances to access suitable patient care. Telehealth transforms these scenarios for everyone’s benefit:

● Patients receive treatment locally without increased risk or incurring additional costs.
● Local hospitals can expand and enhance their services while improving revenue.
● Care is improved, evidence-based and encompasses best practices.
● Remotely monitoring the health of your patients either at home or in post-acute care settings can result in improved patient outcomes and lower costs.

Further, Telehealth can aid in bettering relationships between patients and doctors. Health systems that focus now on their telehealth capabilities will be ideally positioned to respond to patient demands and improve the relationship between patients and physicians as digital transformation continues.

In addition, enhanced relationships and better care result in:

● Fewer hospitalizations and readmissions.
● Reduced lengths of stay.
● Overall improvements in health.
● Higher patient satisfaction.

For more information on implementing effective telehealth strategies or healthcare consulting services visit VIE Healthcare and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.

About the author: Lisa Miller is the CEO and founder of VIE Healthcare Consulting.