Last Updated: February 16, 2021
In today's world, more and more people are moving away from going in for physical appointments and opting to interact with their doctors by using digital health services. This is especially true during the current situation where the fear of getting infected with COVID has pushed people to stay home for extended periods of time. As such, it goes without saying that the demand for telehealth solutions is on the rise. In fact, data acquired from Frost and Sullivan demonstrates that online visits surged by 50% in 2020. Therefore, the question that lies to be answered is, how can a practice decide which telemedicine provider is ideal for their business?
In the beginning stages of finding a provider, practice owners should focus on listing their practice's goals and key criteria. When it comes to evaluating a potential provider, these criteria and goals must be taken into consideration before establishing a long term partnership. When it comes to incorporating telemedicine into your practice you should focus on developing a strong relationship with a provider who provides guaranteed support throughout the entire process. But, the concept of evaluating every provider is impossible as there are over 900 platforms to choose from. Some of the ways you can narrow this list down is to communicate with other practitioners in your network and ask them to provide feedback about a provider that they may be working with. You can also reach out to the American Telemedicine Association or the State Medical Association in regards to some suggestions they may have.
Once you have gathered a list of potential providers that may seem ideal for your practice, you should schedule a few calls with them to discuss in depth, the extent of the service they're offering as well as stat and compliance guidelines. In addition to that, you'll need to incorporate security standards and legal feedback when it comes to interviewing each potential provider, to ensure that any potential liabilities are avoided such as to be in compliance with state laws.
Another critical aspect that shouldn't be overlooked is to ask the vendors for referrals directly as well as case studies to determine if they are safe and credible. Ideally, you should contact providers and inquire about the possibility of speaking to one of their product engineers as well as existing customers, to get a better understanding of how the platform would function in your practice.
The next critical part of the telehealth selection process should primarily consist with you familiarizing yourself with the platform as well as the provider's service team. The reason being is that the service team is who you will be communicating with for most aspects of the platform. In order for you to do this, you should schedule a live demo of their software and make routine calls to the service team. In the midst of these interactions you should focus on evaluating the features of the software across some key factors that will be listed below:
Getting your practice ready for success in the digital era requires careful planning and consideration of several factors, most notably, the 3 key conditions listed above. Selecting any telehealth provider should be done in compliance with federal and state regulations. In addition to that, liability and risk is essential to establishing a safe online practice. So ensure that you put the necessary time in to establish a relationship with a safe and reliable provider.
