Telehealth can be described as the delivery of healthcare to individuals over the internet using appropriate add-ons and connections. In addition to having virtual meetings with healthcare providers, other types of services include:
• Telemedicine (the provision of remote medical care via the internet and video conferencing)
• Electronic medical record keeping
• Portal technology and videoconferencing
Remote health monitoring tools such as wearables and biosensors that track and report personal health information have also become commonplace for remote healthcare. Combined, these methods of communicating with healthcare providers help close the rural-urban healthcare access divide. Regardless of community size, access to routine healthcare and preventative care has long-term, positive impacts on a person’s health. Additionally, when healthcare resources are commonplace, easily accessible, and affordable, a community flourishes.
Challenges of Rural Health for Patients and Providers
People living and working in rural and frontier areas often face serious health disparities when compared with their urban or suburban-living counterparts.
Rural residents are more likely to die from chronic conditions, which include:
• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Chronic lower respiratory disease
• Stroke
The demography and ages affected span all age ranges as well. Rural residents are generally older and sicker than urban residents, according to health reports. Rural children with mental or developmental disorders face more challenges than their peers in urban settings.
Lack of access to healthcare is one of the top reasons for this gap. The barriers to care include:
• Long, often prohibitive, driving distances to major hospitals, clinics, or universities offering specialized care
• Too few local clinics and not enough providers
• Lack of access to medical technology
Difficulties for Providers
Healthcare challenges in rural and frontier locations extend to providers also. Rural practices and providers are strained by high operating costs and a pattern of hospital and clinic closures. This leaves fewer providers doing even more work, particularly at Primary Health Centers. This is only where they are available; where they are available, they are often confronted with few medical facilities to assist the patients.
Other challenges include:
• An ongoing struggle to recruit healthcare providers, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other providers to rural areas, especially those far outside a metro area
• Lack of behavioral health providers to partner with on patient care
• Higher rates of patient suicide
• Higher number of patients with health concerns and complications from lack of access to care
• Lower levels of health overall and complications from lack of access to care
• Difficulty accessing critical healthcare infrastructure, including electronic records, equipment, and generators
• Few or no obstetrics and gynecology services
Benefits of Telehealth in Rural Areas
Telehealth offers a multitude of solutions to the challenges of rural and frontier healthcare. This benefits patients, providers, and the entire community.
Telehealth benefits for patients
• Increased access to specialists to manage and treat chronic conditions
• Access to health and wellness programs for smoking cessation, nutrition, and weight loss
• Increased access to mental health care
• Fewer hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room
Telehealth benefits for providers
• Increased provider-to-provider partnerships with larger healthcare institutions
• Access to remote patient monitoring for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease
• Fewer feelings of isolation from being one of the few providers — or the sole provider — in a large, rural area
• Increased access to training and continuing education
Financial Benefits of Rural Telehealth
• Less time off work for patients to visit a healthcare provider
• Less need for last-minute childcare for both patients and providers
• Fewer in-person visits, which saves money for patients and providers
• Less in-person staffing and overhead costs for providers
• Telehealth can provide an extra income stream for providers
• More attention on routine and preventative health to avoid the most costly health complications
Home Health Management Service Limited (HHMSL)
Home Health Management Service Limited (HHMSL) is a telehealth and virtual healthcare service provider. It has come into the telehealth care service ecosystem with requisite technology-driven options that have been proven to enable healthcare delivery without the attendant challenges. HHMSL is deploying the use of telehealth platforms to facilitate increased access to healthcare services, particularly in rural areas, and increased efficiency for health service providers.
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