The Top Reasons To Practice Telemedicine

Virtual care has been changing the game in healthcare for years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With hospitals overwhelmed, it was more important than ever to quickly ramp up telehealth services to support patients for other illnesses and concerns without requiring everyone to be seen in person.

Now, with the rapid advancements in telehealth delivery, any patient can be seen from anywhere virtually if they have access to the internet. The incredible benefits and flexibility it provides both patients and providers are undeniable.

So, let’s dive into the top reasons many clinicians are choosing to practice telemedicine.

Pick your schedule

One of the number one reasons healthcare providers are moving towards telemedicine to treat patients is the flexible schedule it offers. You can choose which days and times you want to work. Pretty sweet, right? It gets even sweeter when you factor in the moonlighting options it opens up to be able to supplement regular hospital or clinic jobs.

Work/life balance

Being able to set your own schedule means creating a better work/life balance. If you want weekends off to spend time with your family, you can have that! If you want to pick up extra shifts to help you save up for a major purchase, you can do that too! You get to build your schedule to accommodate your lifestyle.

On top of that… when you’re off work, you’re actually off. Practicing telemedicine gets rid of that added stress of being on call and constantly having to check your phone. Take a load off, spend time with your family or get caught up on that TV show you haven’t had time to.

Travel opportunities

The beauty of telehealth is you can see your patients from anywhere. When we say anywhere, we literally mean anywhere. Whether you want to travel with friends or family or move somewhere for an extended period of time, telehealth makes that easy.

There are a couple of key things to remember if you are traveling and planning on seeing patients:

• Make sure the place you are staying has high-speed internet. If your internet is spotty, your patient is not going to receive the care they deserve. So plan before you travel to make sure this doesn’t happen!

• Pick a quiet place to see your patients. Find an area where you are staying that is quiet and private so you can give your full, undivided attention to your patient. This is also important to adhere to HIPAA guidelines.

Expand access to care

By practicing telemedicine, you are expanding access to care for patients who have a hard time receiving in-person care due to medical constraints or lack of physicians and specialists in their area.

Patients no longer need to find transportation to the doctors’ office or drive hours away to be seen. They can see you instead, from the comfort of their own home! This is especially important to reach those patients that have mobility issues, live in rural areas or suffer from chronic conditions where traveling is not an option.

Expanding your reach to these patients not only is a saving grace for them but also allows you to expand your patient base and your exposure to more cases.

Reduced patient no-show rates

Patient no-shows are very common in the traditional hospital setting. Something may have come up last minute for the patient or they don’t have a method of transportation to get to their appointment. This especially becomes an issue in patients with mobility issues or disabilities that make it a challenge to travel.

Telehealth removes that transportation barrier for patients and allows them to be seen from anywhere. No longer do patients need to find a means to get to their appointment or clear out a couple of hours in their day to get to and from their appointment.

Improved patient outcomes

Patients with chronic conditions have oftentimes struggled to get the specialized care and 24x7 monitoring they need to get ahead of their illness. This is where telemedicine comes in.

Telehealth can drastically improve patient outcomes for individuals living with chronic conditions through remote patient monitoring. It’s also proven quite valuable for individuals living in rural areas (surprise, surprise!). Instead of waiting weeks or maybe even months to find time to travel to a specialist, they can track their progress constantly, in real-time.

Improved patient satisfaction

Some patients don’t have the time to squeeze in an hour-long doctor's appointment. Factor in the travel time, waiting room time and the actual appointment duration, the minutes add up quickly. Telemedicine improves patient satisfaction for the people who don’t have the time to go to an in-person appointment.

It can also be quite comforting for patients who put off check-ups and important visits due to a fear of doctor’s offices. Telehealth allows patients to be seen from the comfort of their own home, in their safe space.

The convenience and simplicity virtual care visits provide to patients are unmatched. When healthcare is convenient for the patients and the quality of the provider/patient relationship is maintained virtually, patients are more likely to report higher satisfaction.

Increase yearly income

Practicing telemedicine and seeing patients virtually allows you to see a lot more patients in a day than you would in the traditional office setting. This is because virtual visits are typically shorter than in-person visits. More patients translate into more money.

On top of that, most of your day as a healthcare provider is probably spent answering messages or making phone calls, all with no payment. Now, this is where it gets good... Telehealth allows you to do this outreach over video and get paid for it!

Limits illness exposure

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic is still floating around and is highly contagious. Offering telemedicine as an option for patients when they don’t need to come into the office for their visit can help limit this exposure for healthcare providers and other patients.

Whether the virus is on your mind or you are worried about the upcoming flu season, the virtual options telehealth brings to caring for your patients allows for limited exposure.

To sum it all up

Telemedicine isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. There’s a reason, nine of them listed above actually, that an increasing number of providers are practicing telemedicine. Today, it’s a simple and easy process to start filling shifts as a telemedicine provider for organizations aligned to your skillsets.

In fact, now is the perfect time to introduce OpenLoop! Join our nationwide clinician network for access to top paying telehealth opportunities with leading digital health companies across the US. The OpenLoop network is composed of top clinicians (like you!) who wanted to start working locum tenens telehealth shifts.

From physicians to nurse practitioners to therapists and specialists, we personally match you with clinician advocates to understand your passions and motivators to pair you with telehealth companies that value the same. Our mission is to give you back control of your schedule while allowing you to do work you’re proud of and excited about.

What perks do you get from joining the OpenLoop network?

• Full job transparency: You get to see the job details and payment information before you accept the position so you know exactly what you are signing up for!

• Control over your schedule: You have complete control over your schedule. You decide what days and hours you are available to work and we find shifts that match.

• Knowledge growth: On top of finding top telehealth jobs, you will grow your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of the telehealth industry to further your career.

Sound like something you are interested in? You can join the OpenLoop network now!

Are you a digital health company looking for clinicians to fill shifts and treat your patients? Let’s connect! Partnering with OpenLoop gives you access to our vast clinician network of over 6,500 fully-vetted clinicians.

There’s more... If you need help with the back office challenges that come with launching and scaling your telehealth services, we’ve got you covered! We can take care of MSOs and PC Groups, multi-state licensing, certified credentialing, patient scheduling and so much more.

Interested in learning more about OpenLoop and what we can do to support your needs? Check out our website and let’s set up an intro call!