We discussed in one of our previous blog posts why it is necessary to support Telehealth to future proof your services and to increase the number of visits. So let’s look at how we can transform your clinic into a fully integrated digital clinic.
1. A professional website
The first thing you must do is to have a clean professional website to represent the services you offer and your team. The website will be your digital portfolio and everyone will find out about you from it.
Key areas to include in your medical website are,
- Clearly highlight the call to action that you want the patients to take. For example, if you look at the following website it clearly shows 4 main actions patients can do.
- If you offer Telehealth services make sure it is well highlighted and clear instructions are given on how to use it. The following is a great example of how they have explained it well even though we can reduce the friction of setting up a virtual visit a lot more.
This is a great example of how they have highlighted they offer Telehealth visits in the top section. The reason I emphasise this is that one of the main reasons a patient will visit your website is to receive Telehealth services.
- Contact information should be included and the phone number could be on the top of the landing page. Include links to your social media pages as well.
- Showcase your services and include details about what you offer in each
- Showcase details about your providers and their specialities and how one can book an appointment with a provider.
- If you are an organisation with multiple clinics at different locations you can showcase them as well
2. An EMR System
This could be optional for certain clinics but it is essential in most cases. Having a history of patient records is really useful in chronic diseases. There are a lot of EMR Solution providers. You should always choose one that is approved in your state or region and a system well recognised among your peers.
3. A Telehealth System
Most EMRs do support their inbuilt telemedicine solution but most of the time you and patients will find these not user-friendly and the experience is not that great because EMRs were originally not built for Telehealth. It is always good to select a platform that specialises in telemedicine and integrate that into your EMR. The Telehealth solution should be the place where all the patient interaction and engagement happens. A good Telehealth solution should have,
- Secure Messaging so that doctors and patients can engage asynchronously. This will also help to collect any information from the patient both before and after the visit.
- A high-quality low bandwidth Video Conferencing to connect with patients in real-time
- Patient Portal to view past visits and exchange details for the patient and also to engage with the clinic in booking appointments without having to fill in the same details again.
- Collaboration tools so that the providers can work collaboratively. For example, a doctor might need the advice of another specialist when examining a patient or a nurse might be needed to examine the patient first before the doctor. If the platform allows collaboration they can all work together on the same platform and will save a lot of back and forth communication
- Integration into your EMR system will make life easy for you because if not you would have to duplicate the same on both platforms as you could be collecting and exchanging information on both.
- Support for payments will also be handy as you would not need to use other means to collect payments
- Support for white labelling is essential if you are a health organisation with multiple clinics or hospitals because patients feel most secure when they see your brand and will also increase your brand value.
4. Omni-Chanel Communication
The biggest mistake I have seen with many clinics is that you have to call to get things done. Even to schedule a Telehealth appointment you have to call and provide information. This adds too much friction because you could be losing a lot of customers because you are relying on a single source of input. Allowing communication channels like SMS, Voicemail, Website Requests, and Chatbot will make it easier for a patient to engage with you and this will keep you ahead of the game because most won’t be doing this. You are improving the access to care.
5. Digitally Enabled Care Model
What we have discussed up to now are popular and common components used in clinics. If you have done these, that’s good enough for most and will allow you to run your services digitally. But the real game-changer is to use innovative technologies to enhance overall episodes of care, blending a virtual and in-person experience in ways that improve access and experience for some patients while maintaining or improving quality and reducing long-term costs. In the AMA’s article ‘Return on Health’ it says “Digitally enabled care models are beginning to be developed across the full range of disease acuity and across many clinical conditions, from low- acuity urgent care visits, to hospital-level care at home, to ongoing chronic care management”. While this requires another blog to be written, the general idea here is that there are a lot of areas that could be developed apart from the virtual visit considering the overall process.
How can we help you to build a digital clinic?
We develop custom telemedicine software fully integrated into your current workflow and systems. We have spent thousands of hours developing similar systems. We know what technology is involved, what you need to get compliance and how technology can solve the problem you have and more than anything else, future-proof your organization. With time, the user requirements change, and technologies change. That's why we believe in building long-term relationships, we become part of the team, we keep the systems fresh and running and you always have us to support in case of a technical emergency. Our Main Services are,
- Develop Custom Telehealth Solutions
- Design, Develop and Maintain Medical Websites and Systems
We do have our own telemedicine platform as well which you can customize and white-label according to your needs. It is not the old outdated software you see. Each pixel is carefully designed and developed by us. It's got all the functionalities you need including,
- Secure messaging (Asynchronous communication)
- Video Conferencing (Both group and 1:1 calls)
- Provider collaboration (So that you can work as a team)
- Payment Collection (Stripe Integrated)
- Patient In-take and screening
- Appointment System with reminders
- Patient Portal
- EMR Integration
We have completed over 30 successful projects. One of our clients received Ontario Health Verification and is one of the leading telemedicine platforms in Canada.
I am sure you might want to learn more. Please send us an email at support@telzee.io and we will schedule a call with you. Let's sit and talk about how we can digitize your health organization. You can check our website at telzee.io
