What going to a doctor's office or hospital costs? A day of planning at least a few hours of engagement, a full wallet, and a tank of petrol. Now evaluate what going to the hospital would cost in a pandemic? Your life. Hospitals and clinics are a hub of germs and disease, and you might want to stay away before you catch an infection.
Everything is on your phone now. Your home manager, persona assistant, fitness tracker, teacher, and whatnot. So why cant a doctor be on your phone. Well, telemedicine has made this possible. All thanks to health portals like Marham.pk, now you can consult any doctor of your choice from the comfort of your home.
The covid-19 pandemic did not come with a deadly virus only. It brought travel bans, lockdowns, and above all, it jailed everyone. In this time of crisis, if it weren't for the booming telemedicine technology, half of the world would have died of depression, coronavirus, and various other ailments. If you were not lucky enough to benefits from the fruits of telemedicine doesn't mean that it didn't help thousands of people. According to the Medical Group Management Association, almost 97% of healthcare providers have expanded to telehealth services during the pandemic. Virtual care has been of prime importance in the screening and treatment of the coronavirus. This supposed temporary shift has now become the new norm, and in most cases, you no longer have to go to a hospital to get primary-level services.
To make it clear, telemedicine is a technologically advanced method to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients at a distance using telecommunications technology. Telemedicine was an already flourishing industry, but the pandemic gave it the boom it very much deserved and needed. You can now use health portals to educate yourself, get yourself tested, get medicines, and consult with dermatologist, general physicians, nutritionists, and any other specialist you might need.
Importance Of Telemedicine In The Pandemic
Here is how telemedicine took the weight of the pandemic on its shoulders.
Better Protection and Increased Safety
The risk of getting an infection or contracting a virus doubles when you are in a hospital. This makes telehealth a safe and much-needed option. If you think that you have a disease, you can simply get screened online and avoid going to the hospital and getting a disease you never had.
This has become all the more important in the case of diseases as contagious as the coronavirus. You no longer have to wear your mask, gloves, and other protective wear to consult a doctor. Neither the doctor has to maintain a distance to keep themselves safe. This makes telemedicine the most brilliant way to cater to the screening and treatment of coronavirus and other rudimentary diseases.
Instant Care
Consider yourself in a medical emergency, but you don't have enough time or resources to reach a hospital; what would you do? Simply contact your doctor by phone. This applies to all coronavirus emergencies too. You must remember the time of the start of the pandemic. Even a cough was enough to scare you to death. Only if you knew about telehealth services before you could have instantly connected with your doctor and have found the reason behind it.
Not only this, you fear a heart attack but are scared to go to the hospital in fear of contracting the monstrous virus. Will you just stay at home and let yourself feel what you were? Obviously not. You would immediately seek help from the doctor in your phone and only visit the hospital if you really have an emergency requiring physical presence.
Budget-Friendly
Telemedicine is not only light on your pocket but on the healthcare providers too. How much do you think a hospital's electricity bill is? Well, to simply put it, hefty. Healthcare providers can save up a lot on their expenditures by providing telehealth services. Hospitals no longer have to invest in extra room facilities, cafeterias, beds, stretchers, and lighting. There is no denying that proper hospital facilities will always be required. But telemedicine has taken a load of the burden from such facilities.
Now that the healthcare providers don't spend much on physical facilities, they will charge you less. You no longer have to pay for the lavish waiting area, the apparently free water, and the unnecessary equipment the doctor uses on you. Also, you can save up the cost of fuel, making telemedicine an even budget-friendly option. One aspect of telemedicine that people often overlook is that you have greater options now. Hospitals usually only hire the most qualified and probably the most expensive doctors. This does not mean that the rest of the doctors are not qualified or skilled enough to treat you. Through telemedicine, you can consult all sorts of doctors, from the very best and most expensive ones to the ones providing almost free consultations.
Easy Follow-Ups
This might be the most prominent benefit of telemedicine. Once you have been to the doctor and have had a proper diagnosis and early treatment, your follow-up might not require a physical consultation. You can simply take a follow-up on the phone or video. At times your doctor just needs to check for any possible medicine reaction or your meds routine. People tend to avoid going for follow-ups because of the effort and time required, but thanks to telemedicine, you just need five minutes from your busy schedule to let your doctor know all they need to.
Increased Quality
Depending upon the country you live in o the healthcare system you are used to, telemedicine can remarkably improve the quality of care provided. One of the most common issues that patients report against their doctor is the doctor's lack of attention and interest in the patient's condition. As telemedicine is provided only by the most reliable company's, the chance of this s reduced drastically.
From a doctors' perspective, they don't have to waste their energies and time filling the hospitals or clinic's requirements so they can better understand and listen to the patients. Also, through telemedicine, you can keep in constant touch with your doctor. This too, adds to the quality of healthcare provided to the patient. The decreased communication gap between the doctor and the patients takes away a lot from the disease the patients are suffering from.
Conserved Bed Space
Apart from reducing the cost, telemedicine allows the conservation of various resources that can be better used on more critical patients. The covid-19 pandemic has made us all see that how broken our healthcare systems are. Our systems are not capable enough to provide critical care to all those who deserve it. Telemedicine takes the burden off the shoulders of hospital settings to provide physical facilities like rooms and beds to all. Instead, this equipment is left for people who actually deserve the ma and can not live without them.
Even in the case of the covid-19, not all affected required extensive acre, but people with very low oxygen levels needed ventilators, beds, ICUs, and rooms. Only if there were no telehealth options available and all the infected patients would have run to the hospitals, the system would have collapsed in seconds.
All Rounded Care
Whether infected with the coronavirus or any other simple or fatal disease, no patient should be treated with one specialist doctor only. Everybody should be given all-rounded care. For instance, if a person is a suspected case of covid-19. They will need a proper testing specialist to diagnose them, and then they should be referred to a general physician for their preliminary treatment. If the case is not in its first stage, they shall be referred to a pulmonologist; all along, they must be referred to a nutritionist to help them boost their immunity and maintain good health.
All rounded care can best be provided through telehealth. No one has the time, energy, and money to consult five different specialists for one disease. Many telehealth services have the option to consult a panel of doctors. The panel includes professionals from all the relevant domains. All the doctors collaborate to provide you with a complete treatment plan that caters to your current medical condition and overall health and well-being.
Focus On Mental Health
No matter what disease you or the whole world gets, one thing that is bound to get affected is your mental state. The same is the case with the covid-19 pandemic. People locked inside their houses, whether infected or not, were bound to get disturbed. All thanks to telemedicine, many people could get online consultations with the best psychologists, keeping them safe and their minds healthy.
With mental illness emerging as a new pandemic, it is high time that we start the shift towards telemedicine to provide various services related to mental health. No field of medicine requires such constant contact with healthcare providers other than mental health.
Easy Access
What would be more demanding; building a hospital in a rural area or teaching them to use telemedicine services? Obviously, building a hospital would require more money, labor, effort, and planning. So why not give people living in underdeveloped areas access to telemedicine. It is easier to provide and easier to use.
Not only in rural areas, but people living in urban areas that can not go to hospitals can also access all healthcare through the comfort of their homes. This applies to older, immobile, or disabled people. Telehealth has made it possible for all to access health services, no matter where they are.
The Best Online Consultation
Now that you know that telemedicine is the present and future, you must be wondering which platform to trust. Depending upon your preferences, budget, location, and issue, there are a number of telemedicine portals providing the best quality healthcare. You can consult with doctor online by holding your phone in bed.
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