Telehealth refers to delivering health related information and services through telecommunications technologies. It includes both the preventive as well as the curative factors of medicine. For instance, doctors make use of email for communicating with their patients, ordering drug prescriptions as well as offering other important health services.
1. Employer benefits
Employers have lots to benefit from telehealth as it could assist to lower absenteeism and thus enhance productivity. Research shows that most hospital visits including urgent care and emergency room are for the common illnesses. Any time the regular doctors are unavailable for treating the employees, telehealth physicians can fill this void. Workers will therefore not miss whole workdays so as to go and seek treatment for common ailments. Furthermore, telehealth promotes employee satisfaction like part of a health benefits package. It enhances the ability of an employer to both recruit and also retain employees.
2. Benefits rural residents
Most rural residents have to deal with social and cultural differences, economic limitations and educational shortcomings as well as the utter isolation linked to living in distant rural areas. For such people, the regular hospital visit is not practical. Telehealth provides the options of consulting doctors using the web or telephone so as to deliver high quality services at an affordable cost. This improves patient safety as it eliminates the need for driving to the closest hospital.
3. Benefits travelers
Travelers who are either travelling for pleasure or business find telehealth services beneficial with regards to convenience. Telephones and the internet are universally accessible from anywhere. This allows people to have access to health care at all times. This means you can access quality care when you are at home, a hotel and also in your office.
Telehealth provides inexpensive access to good quality medical services for both routine and chronic diseases as well.
