Telehealth benefits and barriers

The terms telehealth and telemedicine are often used interchangeably. Telehealth is a subset of e-health and is the use of telecommunications technology in health care delivery, information, and education according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Telemedicine is considered to be under the umbrella of telehealth and refers specifically to clinical services. Telehealth and telemedicine cover similar services, including medical education, remote patient monitoring, patient consultation via videoconferencing, wireless health applications, and transmission of imaging and medical reports. Improvements in health care information technology, in addition to the expansion of access to health care services, have stimulated telehealth growth, uniting providers and patients in methods that were unimagined in the past. Telehealth includes a wide range of practices and specialties and involves interactions among patients and providers through telephone, e-mail, video chats or conferences, the Internet, and remote devices. The rapid expansion of telehealth, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, paired with variable regulations and guidelines creates increased potential for liability and legal issues.

The original concept of telehealth was providing basic care to rural and underserved patients. Wider acceptance and incorporation of telehealth can be attributed to several factors. One of these factors is the transition of health care from fee-for-service models to models in which reimbursement is linked to patient and quality outcomes. With increasing emphasis and pressure for hospitals and providers to provide quality patient care and cut costs, telehealth has found acceptance and success in multiple medical specialties and settings.

Increasingly, telehealth technologies are being adopted and implemented as an efficient and cost-effective means for delivering and accessing quality health care services and outcomes. Telemedicine has the potential to reduce American health care spending by decreasing problems like medication misuse, unnecessary emergency department visits, and prolonged hospitalizations. Telehealth provides access to resources and care for patients in rural areas or areas with provider shortages, improves efficiency without higher net costs, reduces patient travel and wait times, and allows for comparable or improved quality of care. Better access to care, convenience, and reduced stress with telehealth use also can increase patient satisfaction. Although patients and providers enjoyed the benefits of telehealth, the widespread adoption of telehealth has unfortunately been hampered by a variety of barriers including technology use among older adults and Internet bandwidth speeds in rural or underserved areas. Despite these barriers, telehealth acceptance will likely continue to increase as patients and providers become more adept at and comfortable with using technology instead of face-to-face interactions.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many challenges for the health care system as a whole. In order to continue to care for patients with and without COVID-19 safely and effectively, many changes in practice models were necessary. This resulted in a rapid shift to telehealth models in many settings in both inpatient and outpatient arenas. In order to prevent and reduce the transmission of COVID-19, patients and providers had to quickly adapt to telehealth models.