Telemedicine is a win-win for the patients and providers alike. With a thoughtful and strategic approach, you can realize incredible benefits across the board.

Telemedicine is foreseeably evolving as a strategic maneuver for medical practices. While video visits are not new for the providers any more, many are embracing this technology with arms wide open. So, if you’re planning to implement a telemedicine solution at your practice, you’re probably not alone. Here are five important takeaways from our rigorous evidence collection to illustrate what all makes telemedicine providers successful:

A Comprehensive Plan with Precisely Defined Objectives

Gone are the days when traveling along a road would take you to the right destination. If you want your telemedicine venture to be a success, you need to have a comprehensive plan in place with clearly defined goals. You should know what exactly you want to achieve and how. You should have a pre-determined list of workflows that will eventually augment or even transform your practice. You are further advised to periodically visit these goals to ensure you are headed in the right direction.

You might want to have the following as your key objectives:

• Increase revenue by seeing more patients
• Have more flexible workflows
• Expand the outreach of your practice beyond geographical barriers
• Offer new services such as lifestyle coaching, alongside your primary care practice

The Right Technology Partner

Be aware that the telemedicine system that you chose to implement will eventually be the face of your practice. Hence, select your telemedicine vendor wisely. Don’t fall prey to the ready-made solutions available in the market. Instead, get it customized to the workflows of your practice to optimize the system. Make sure certain features are built into the system you deploy, such as re-verification of the patients to facilitate easier reimbursement. You are also advised to have a medical billing solution integrated with your telemedicine solution to avoid any billing-related problems. Most importantly, run a double check to make sure your system is encrypted and HIPAA-compliant.

Adequate Marketing

So, now you have an excellent telemedicine system in place. What next? How can your patients know about this breakthrough invention at your practice? The answer is relatively straightforward – marketing. You should deploy a rigorous marketing campaign to advertise your telemedicine program to your current as well as prospective patients. Provide information about the benefits that are expected to accrue from this solution, including details about the approach and basic mechanism. You should leverage email campaigns and online appointment setting with your marketing efforts to help your patients make an informed decision.

These are amongst the best practices that can go a long way to ensure that your telemedicine program is both popular and profitable. Telemedicine is a win-win for the patients and providers alike. Therefore, with a thoughtful and strategic approach, you can realize incredible benefits across the board.

Guest Post By:

Sophie is a progressive healthcare researcher at Novel Health with access to industry experts, researchers, physicians, legislators, and entrepreneurs to promote technological advancements across the entire healthcare value chain. She is passionate about groundbreaking technologies, such as Cloud-based systems, artificial intelligence, autonomous billing, patient engagement,  augmented reality, and the internet of things initiatives that can help improve quality and efficiency of care delivery.