Health and Wellness Informatics News
Without any financial help from the FCC, Kentucky-based Baptist Health was facing challenges like lack of specialists, access to care, and decreased patient experience.
The introduction of telehealth in rural parts of the state will put the health measure back in the patient’s hand. They no longer have to drive in and wait to get the diagnosis. However, they can now easily ask for the doctor’s guidance whenever they want.
Fields like banking, retail, insurance, entertainment, etc., have already bridged the digital transformation by creating massive socio-developmental changes in every spectrum of life.
With the investment of billions of dollars wholly into the sector of fast-growing digital health companies in 2021 itself, the non-conventional players will prove to be a greater telehealth competition in the coming years.
Baptist Health faced another bigger issue from non-conventional players such as Amazon, Walmart, and Google. They were also trying to take their place in the healthcare industry by providing telehealth as a solution. However, the high volume of input given by national telemedicine companies like Amwell and LiveHealth also fueled the issue.
Nick Sarantis also notified the agencies that “the advancement of digital health helps to put some of the control back into the patients’ hands.” We have seen this change in every other aspect of life – banking, retail, insurance, entertainment, etc. – and consumer expectations have been evolving for quite some time. “
Baptist Health was able to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 patients via remote monitoring technology. It aims now to support COPD and CHF patients by monitoring Epic’s MyChart care companion.
Telehealth solutions enabled video visits and virtual solutions, providing ease of care for patients. Healthcare organizations also have the option to make a worthwhile investment in modern and exclusive healthcare technology.
The health system now provides emergency video visits 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It accepted two success metrics over the past few months. Outpatient visits account for about 10% of all visits.
In the year 2020, the institution received a grant of $873,982 from the FCC. The fund was for telehealth platforms, carts, computers, tablets, and other remote monitoring equipment. The fund also helped the institution provide an appropriate camera and microphone set up for better diagnosis in the event of a pandemic.