Are you considering adding a telehealth component to your practice?
As you probably know, you’re not alone. More and more physicians are taking advantage of virtual doctor’s visits, and they should.
After all, video calls make healthcare more accessible to people with certain disabilities, those without access to transportation, and those with COVID-19 concerns. It allows physicians to look after their patients if they can’t see them in person.
Yet, many physicians make a slew of telemedicine mistakes when they first start out. Below, we list the top five and explain how you can avoid them.
1. They Make Decisions On Their Own
You can make some pretty fantastic decisions. In fact, it’s your whole job to make decisions about how to treat someone’s ailments, and you should be proud of that.
However, when implementing a new program, it’s important that you don’t make decisions on your own. Suddenly instituting a new part to your practice without letting the relevant parties know can cause confusion.
With this in mind, tell your staff, stakeholders, and any other relevant parties why you think telehealth would be a good addition to your practice. This will prevent hassle down the road, and you can even run your ideas past them once they’re on board.
2. Unclear Communication
It takes a team to make a clinic work. If you run one, you know that everyone is on a very delicately balanced schedule. You don’t need miscommunication to throw the day off.
Unclear expectations remain one of the more common telemed icine mistakes. If a doctor fails to tell the staff key information about how their schedules will change, the staff might not know what to do when.
This can result in confusion among the staff, subpar health services, and patient dissatisfaction. The solution is simple: communicate clearly and regularly with your staff about how their new schedules will work.
3. Technological Telemedicine Mistakes
New technology always comes with a learning curve. Even if you want to get up and running as soon as possible, do some test runs before you see your first patient.
Oftentimes, physicians will assume they know the technology well enough to operate it with clients. This may be the case, but it always helps to do a few test calls with your staff to make sure everything works well.
4. Not Starting Small Enough
As tempting as it might be, don’t offer every single service right from the start.
After all, patients may prefer to come in for certain services, especially if they’re concerned a telehealth appointment won’t adequately diagnose it.
It’s better to start small and offer your most basic services online first.
5. Selecting Consumer Software
Not all software is HIPAA-compliant.
When selecting the software with which to run your telehealth practice, don’t just reach for what consumers do. Make sure the software also meets medical and legal requirements to protect patient information.
More Healthcare Advice
Now that you’ve considered some of the common telemedicine mistakes, you’re ready to start implementing your telehealth practice!
Before you do, though, make sure to check out some of our other articles for more healthcare advice!
