Telehealth | Healthcare At Your Fingertips
Telehealth | Healthcare At Your Fingertips
Have you ever needed to have your doctor on speed dial? It is almost impossible to imagine a reality where our everyday life isn’t integrated with technology. We do everything online, buy items, communicate, share experiences, and now we even see doctors virtually.
quadcare is a leading provider of telemedicine services in South Africa. We make it convenient for patients to have one-on-one consultations with a qualified general practitioner through a phone call. The teleconsultations can be booked through a simple online booking process or Whatsapp.
There is a seamless transition between booking, consulting, and receiving medication making it a hassle-free process. Many medical conditions can be initially diagnosed and treated with teleconsultation from diarrhoea and sore throats to chronic conditions and family planning.
Teleconsultations are brief and concise, allowing you to skip the long surgery queue and consult your doctor regardless of geographic location.
quadcare boasts 12 medical centres across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo. “We need a South Africa that provides access to healthcare…” says Dr. Dulcy Rakomakoe, CEO of quadcare. The 13th clinic was opened in Mamelodi Square in Pretoria, a great achievement for the organisation. Not only does quadcare prioritize accessibility, our healthcare professionals treat patients with the utmost dignity and respect. “People fall ill all the time and we want them to know that quadcare is a safe space free of discrimination and prejudice.”
Nine out of the 13 clinics are located within a shopping mall making it convenient for you to pay a visit to the doctor.
The physical-virtual hybrid model takes full use of the clinic’s infrastructure to ensure that patients are catered to regardless of proximity or connectivity challenges. This allows patients to be in control of whether they would like to have a virtual or physical consultation.
Technological developments in medicine have prompted a steady increase in the use of telehealth services because of its convenience, lower cost, and its ability to easily reach a large number of people.
quadcare has cemented the infrastructure, skills, and experience to support its patients and ensure they receive quality, affordable and convenient healthcare.
Click here to try out our teleconsultation for only R10 | T&C’s Apply
Telehealth In South Africa
Telehealth In South Africa
Telehealth in South Africa is slowly but surely taking over the way healthcare is conducted. This way of providing care to patients provides numerous benefits and very few cons. It makes it easier for patients who are ill to receive care, it’s often more affordable, and it’s found to be more efficient!
Let’s talk in detail about Telehealth in South Africa!
What Is Telehealth?
Telehealth is the use of technology to provide healthcare services. This digital information and communication technology uses computers and other mobile devices to remotely access and manage healthcare services. Telehealth technologies are accessible at home and can be used by your doctor to provide more efficient care to patients.
Some of the luxuries of telehealth in South Africa include:
- Downloading an app on your phone to access your health care from anywhere with internet connection
- Used to seek an online test result, make appointments, seek prescription refills, and use an online patient portal to email your doctor
- Electronically uploading prescriptions, meal logs, blood sugar level and medicine dosage to a doctor or nurse.
- Online ordering of testing materials and medicines.
- Get reminders by email, text, or phone when you are in need of a flu vaccination, a foot examination, or similar preventative care.
Telehealth, also referred to as e-health or mobile health (m-health), has the following objectives:
- Make healthcare services accessible or convenient for persons with limited mobility, transit alternatives or time
- Enhance communication and coordination of healthcare of patients between the patients and members of health care teams
- Make healthcare services available to persons who reside in remote or isolated areas.
- Provide easy access to medical professionals
- Assist in self-management of health care
The telehealth services listed below are valuable resources for telehealth in South Africa.
Patient Portal
With the telehealth services, your primary care office may have a website or app that supports and provides a patient portal online. These portals offer an alternative to email, an unsecured method of communicating confidential medical information in general. A portal is a more secure internet tool that allows you to conduct the following:
- Speak with your personal doctor
- Refill your prescriptions
- Make appointments or ask for appointment reminders
- Examine your test results and visit previous summaries
A patient portal may also be accessed by any specialist you visit at any point in time.
Virtual Appointments
Some clinics may provide virtual appointments in which you may visit your medical practitioner via internet video-conferencing. In the case where a physical visit is not needed or feasible, virtual appointments allow you to carry on with your treatment with your doctor.
Another form of virtual appointment is the “Website consultation”. The Web-based visit allows you to access a doctor or nurse practitioner by visiting a website. However, most of the services provided here are generally for mild-ailments, comparable to those offered in a regular walk-in clinic.
When you sign up for a web-based consultation, you are asked a series of questions. The doctor, nurse, or other practitioners might prescribe medication, provide homecare recommendations, or simply refer you to additional medical treatment through the web service.
Many Technologies Allow Your Doctor Or Healthcare Team To Check Your Health Remotely
Among these technologies are:
- Home monitoring systems for the elderly or those with dementia which identify variations in routine activity such as falls.
- Devices that measure and wirelessly send blood pressure, glucose levels, lung function and other health data.
- Web-based or mobile apps send information to your doctor or health care team, such as blood glucose levels.
- Wearable devices that automatically capture and send health care data such as heart rate, blood glucose levels, locomotion, posture control, tremors, physical activity, and sleep patterns.
Doctors Talking To Doctors
Doctors may also use telehealth in South Africa to communicate quicker with each other regarding shared patients. For example, a virtual consultation allows primary healthcare providers to receive advice from experts when they are in doubt about the diagnosis of an illness or its treatment.
The Primary care doctor also has the means to transfer exam notes, test results, history, X-rays, or other pictures to a specialist for evaluation. The expert can provide help online, set up a virtual meeting with the patient at your doctor’s office, or request a face-to-face meeting.
These virtual consultations of doctors may minimize the need for unnecessary in-person referrals to specialists, shorten wait periods for professional input, and eliminate the need for wasteful travel.
Personal Health Records
An electronic personal health record system, often known as a PHR system, collects health information that you manage and maintain. You may access a PHR app from any web-enabled device, such as your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, at any time.
In an emergency, a personal health record may immediately provide crucial information to emergency workers, such as current diagnoses, prescriptions, drug allergies, and your doctor’s contact information.
Personal Health Apps For Telehealth In South Africa
A plethora of applications have been developed to assist consumers in better organizing their medical information in one safe location. These digital tools may be helpful to you in the following ways:
- Keep personal health information secure
- Calculate and keep track of your calorie consumption
- Keep track of your physical activities, such as your daily step count
- Keep track of vital indicators
- Remind yourself to take your medication regularly
Final Thoughts
Technology can increase healthcare quality while making it more accessible to more people. Telehealth in South Africa can make health care more efficient, coordinated, and accessible to the general public.
Telehealth research is however still in its early stages, but is expanding rapidly. For example, studies have demonstrated that telephone-based assistance and telemonitoring of vital signs in persons with heart failure lowered the risk of mortality and hospitalization and increased quality of life. We at quadcare look forward to.
Top 10 Benefits of Telehealth for South African Patients and Doctors
Top 10 Benefits of Telehealth for South African Patients and Doctors
Telehealth is a term used to describe the use of electronic communication and information technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient monitoring, and health management. The growth of benefits of telehealth services is outpacing traditional healthcare delivery models by a wide margin as patients and providers alike, discover the many advantages of this innovative technology.
Telehealth is powered by digital technology, allowing us to reimagine the doctor’s appointment as a house call without the trip! From primary care to radiology, cardiology to orthopedics, telemedicine has been in use recently as an option for patients who cannot go to a physical location for their medical treatment.
SaaS (Software-as- a- Service) telehealth apps have become commonplace and can be found in the pockets or purses of both doctors and patients. Today’s telehealth platforms do not require large upfront capital costs but are instead included in monthly subscription packages that are HIPAA-compliant and safe.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 benefits of telehealth applications for doctors and patients. How can these new business models transform the way doctors treat patients?
10 Benefits of Telehealth
1. Advances New Business Models
By improving consumer-based care, telehealth as a commercial model is reshaping the paradigm. According to an article in mHealthIntelligence, “Specialists are now finding that they can launch their own telehealth platform to consumers, offering their services online much like a banker, real estate agent or other businessperson.” Clinicians can use telehealth to grow their patient base beyond brick-and-mortar locations, expanding hours and offering patients new and more convenient models of care.
2. Improves Patient Engagement with Remote Monitoring
Consumerism and value-based reimbursement have prompted hospitals and health systems to promote new ways of connecting with their patients to promote self-care. Taking a proactive approach to patient care entails clinicians teaching patients how to care for themselves between clinical sessions.
With the increase in chronic health issues, medical professionals can improve results while also reducing costs by using telehealth for remote monitoring. Today, telehealth is used to share patient data from the patient’s own home, whereas remote teams serve as a coach and counselors as they assist patients in their health journey.
3. Expands Access to Care and Reaches More Patients
We are aware of the growing physician shortage and telehealth has the potential to help quadcare expand our provider networks in novel ways to provide access to care. The benefits of Telehealth can be used to connect patients in remote locations. The tool can be used for both midlevel patient education and physician diagnosis, allowing for new ways to reach more individuals.
4. Improves Clinical Workflows and Increases Practice Efficiency
Telehealth has the potential to improve healthcare workflow efficiency. Benefits of Telehealth can facilitate faster prioritization of care delivery by gathering, storing, and using patient data for improved medical decision-making, triaging each case, and improving communication. According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), telehealth is a part of some of the nation’s highest-performing practices. These technologies can contribute to performance enhancements, such as increasing patient satisfaction levels.
5. Increases Practice Revenue
Along with lowering per-visit overhead expenses, the benefits of telehealth are more convenient for patients and providers. Telehealth allows clinicians to charge for unpaid phone calls while simultaneously increasing billable hours. Telehealth reduces no-shows and can increase a practice’s efficiency. By Benefits of Telehealth can also help organizations gain a competitive edge by attracting and retaining more patients via innovative treatment models.
6. Reduces Practice Overhead
Compared to costly hospital systems, SaaS telehealth solutions are very affordable to implement. However, By benefits of telehealth appointments are far less expensive than regular on-site visits. Typically, an emergency room visit costs between *R1200-R2000* per day, whereas an on-site doctor’s office visit costs *R350-400*. In comparison, a telehealth appointment costs an average of *R200* per visit.
7. Cuts Patient Costs
Our patients at quadcare invest a significant amount of money and time in their healthcare. During a the benefits of telehealth appointment, the doctor visits the patient via phone, laptop, or other digital devices. Consider how travel, parking, childcare, and time may add up. The additional effort required to get to a distant doctor’s clinic might be tiring, but it’s the fees that can quickly add up.
Patients from remote places must travel overnight to see specialists in larger cities. Oregon Health and Science University, based in America, saved $6.4 million (R 9.8 million) in annual travel expenditures for its patients by introducing a telemedicine service. According to one UPMC patient survey, 40% of patients said they would skip treatment if they did not have access to virtual visits due to the difficulty of excessive travel to their clinics.
8. Benefits of telehealth: Improves Healthcare Quality
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Telehealth improves healthcare quality, especially in rural areas. This is because technology has the potential to significantly improve service delivery and treatment of acute diseases. The benefits of Telehealth are often used to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits. It also improves patient convenience by allowing them to receive treatment without having to travel long distances.
9. Reduces Patient No-Shows
Becker’s published a case study earlier this year on a Nebraska Children’s Hospital that suffered from frequent no-shows, in part because rural patients traveled great distances to receive treatment at the state-of-the-art hospital. No shows had grown into a serious revenue loss for the organization, compromising the quality of service, especially during follow-up visits. When they expanded treatment via benefits of telehealth, the targeted service line saw a 50% reduction in no-show rates.
10. Improves Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is a critical metric for telehealth success. 87% of patients who have used the OrthoLive telehealth application say that they would do it again. According to a patient study conducted by the CVS Minute Clinics nationwide chain, patients reported a satisfaction rate of up to 99 percent with their telehealth appointment. These results have been observed in clinical settings, including the Cleveland Clinic, the VA, and children’s hospitals.
Telehealth Is Growing In South Africa
Due to the pandemic, Doctors and specialists alike, have been significantly impacted, with declining consultations of between 60% and 90%, and have raising concerns about their livelihoods.
However along with this, the pandemic has resulted in the growth of the benefits of telehealth and the telemedicine industry, also known as telehealth, which provides doctors with a virtual alternative to physical consultations and comes at a much lower cost for patients.
Why Use Telemedicine? And How are the benefits?
Why have these providers been so receptive to what some might call a “disruptive” technology?
Whether it’s a more effective medication just authorized by SAHPRA, a revised orthopedic practice aimed to reduce hospital stays, or virtual appointments, the answer is the same: These are necessary practice improvements at a time when every visit should offer “value” to the customer.
According to Becker’s Spine Review, one of the major trends affecting orthopedic practices in the coming years will be decreasing reimbursement. Telemedicine solutions allow orthopedists to simplify services in ways that benefit both patient care and practice overhead.
When seen in this way, adopting a cloud-based subscription telemedicine application tailored specifically for orthopedic practices makes perfect sense — it’s a market-driven necessity.
Now that you’ve seen how telemedicine can be used in your practice, isn’t it time to see quadcare in action? Contact us today.
Telemedicine: More Than Just A Virtual Doctor’s Office
quadcare ensures smooth communication for deaf patients. We offer accommodations like sign language interpreters and respect your preferred communication method. During your consultation, use visual aids or bring a companion for support.
Telemedicine: Why it isn’t a temporary fix, but the new norm
quadcare ensures smooth communication for deaf patients. We offer accommodations like sign language interpreters and respect your preferred communication method. During your consultation, use visual aids or bring a companion for support.