Many seniors are finding the advantages of having their own in-home virtual health care support system to be invaluable in maintaining their overall well-being. Chronic conditions often compound the difficulty of seniors to attend regular physician appointments, go through routine physical exams, and take on complicated medication regimens.
In a recent visible study of a large sample of elderly individuals in a community of 650 senior residents, 38 percent of all in-room acute care visits were determined to be amenable to some sort of virtual health platform. Nearly all of these individuals reported being able to maintain their regular physician appointments while utilizing the computerized technologies available to them at home. They also described a high level of comfort and ease of use of these technologically enhanced computer systems.
This same study compared a subset of the same sample to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Health Improvement Program’s (HIP) survey of doctor visits over the last three years. The HIP’s report showed that many senior citizens have yet to make the transition to an enterprise-wide, virtual health platform for in-home care.
Most of these same participants indicated that they would likely experience a decrease in overall physical exam frequency once they choose a virtual health system for their home health needs. While many of the individuals stated that they saw a small decrease in doctor visits, many also stated that they were still very satisfied with the services provided by their current physician.
In the last two HIP reports, the number of physicians utilizing an enterprise-wide, or virtual health strategy increased by eleven percent. When examining the specifics of these findings, it was found that physicians were more satisfied with their services and that more doctors reported that they were highly motivated to maintain their specific patient records once they converted their in-home into a virtual health system. Furthermore, these physicians were willing to provide inputs to the organization regarding its technology needs.
Only five percent of physicians surveyed indicated that they were unhappy with their current technology. Nearly all of these physicians were already utilizing virtual environments on their enterprise-wide systems, so they were not concerned about making a change to a new system.
One of the largest reasons why physicians are changing their practices is because of the incredible convenience provided by their current health system. The HIP is one of the most robust patient portal solutions available in the enterprise-wide cloud environment.
However, because physicians are moving away from their office to offices that utilize an enterprise-wide system, and from specific applications to their iPhone and Android devices, many physicians are reporting that they spend less time using their enterprise-wide system and more time using their smartphone. Some physicians reported that they have reviewed their daily practices and have significantly decreased the amount of time that they spend on their smartphones.
Since virtual health care is the wave of the future for health care, the nation’s financial investment in capitalizing on these new technologies must be made accordingly. According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, eight out of ten people who would save money on annual premiums and deductibles by using an medicine virtual system would do so if they were also to use these programs in their homes.