The benefits of telehealth services
Whether you’re a healthcare provider, a practice manager, or a patient, telehealth services provide benefits to everyone.
According to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), between March 2020 and August 2021, 86,632 practitioners delivered 70.5 million telehealth services to almost 15 million patients.
Here are some of the benefits these telehealth services provided.
Benefits of telehealth for:
Health Providers
- Reduced travel, expense, and time away from home.
- Higher patient reach, due to fewer location and travel barriers.
- Reduced patient ‘no-shows’.
- Real-time assistance with difficult cases and emergencies.
- Improved allocation of consulting rooms within a practice where there is limited availability.
- Opportunity for staff to work remotely.
- For professional development, such as informal knowledge transfer through increased collaboration, networking, and case conferencing opportunities.
Patients
- Improved access to healthcare i.e., greater equity.
- Reduced travel, expense, and time away from home.
- Reduced waiting times supporting faster diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
- Improved continuity and quality of care.
- Local treatment from a known healthcare provider, under specialist supervision.
- Increased opportunity to contact their healthcare provider between face-to-face consults.
Practice Managers
- Service delivery growth opportunities.
- Improved clinical workflows and increased practice efficiency e.g., time savings.
- More cost-effective delivery of service through higher patient flow and time savings.
Photo courtesy of The Australian Digital Health Agency.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) is a statutory authority that is focused on creating a healthier future for Australians through connected healthcare. The ADHA’s mission is to develop a collaborative environment that accelerates adoption and use of innovative digital services and technologies. Learn more here.
