People are living longer and in higher numbers. In fact, the number of individuals over 65 years of age is predicted to reach a record number of nearly 80 million by 2040 in the United States. Consequently, there will be more people age 65 or older living in America than at any time in history. Older adults have significant rates of chronic health conditions, including behavioral health issues, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity that require consultation, monitoring, and continuous, regular education. Accordingly, the question becomes whether the U.S. health care system possesses the applications, resources, and partnerships to care for an aging adult population.
Facilitating Health Care Management
This unprecedented swell in the older adult population will put never-before-experienced economic and operational tension in the health care system. Deploying telehealth is one of the most useful approaches for alleviating the strain that the increasing aging community will place on the health care system. Telehealth equips health care professionals with the tools to monitor, consult, communicate, and educate patients in their homes through a telephone connection or the internet. Accordingly, it has the power to transform health care for both patients and providers. Telehealth facilitates efficient, effective, and affordable management of the healthcare system as follows:
Offers guidance. Sharing wellness education assists patients in understanding the care plan for their diagnoses correctly to self-manage their conditions. This can reduce the length of hospital stays for critical patients and even lower the mortality rate.
Renders virtual checkups. Telehealth facilitates routine virtual visits for bed-bound or disabled individuals. Moving to collaborative and preventive telehealth transforms the delivery models and broadens the access to affordable, quality in-home care.
Shifts care. Digital care eases the transition from a medical facility to the patient’s home, which results in enhanced well-being and improves resource utilization across the health continuum.
Improves communication. Monitoring patients in their home environment enables providers to discuss emerging health issues before they worsen. Telehealth-based care also improves access to care by connecting every member of a patient’s care team.
Manages conditions. By observing ongoing vital signs, physicians can treat and control chronic diseases. It also brings centralized support and monitoring from remote clinicians to bedside teams.
With the increasing rates of older adults adopting new technologies, they are more comfortable and accepting of alternate methods of communication. You can be a change agent in this industry by earning a health care administration degree from top-rated universities such as USC Online and the University of Cincinnati Online.
Moving to Value-Based Care
Transforming the nation’s health care system entails connecting people, information, locations, and technology using innovative approaches. Health systems must fundamentally reimagine the processes utilized to deliver care, and telehealth responds to these needs by shifting the health continuum to establish a uniquely positioned and robust health care organizational model that provides a delivery system to meet future needs. As sweeping reform continues to drive the focus on improving the patient experience, enterprise telehealth solutions can assist providers to achieve the requisite level of transition to ease into a transformation from volume- to value-based care.