Technology offers a lot of benefits to different industries as it increases efficiency and productivity in the workforce. The pandemic also highlighted the importance of technology as people had to stay home to avoid the virus. The healthcare industry also integrated technology into its system to enhance the services it provides to its patients.
Technology allowed medical professionals to connect with patients online, which was essential for people staying in remote locations. Advances in technology also allowed medical professionals to delegate administrative tasks to outsource workers. This allowed them to focus on the patients who were under their care.
Here are the different ways technology improved patient care.
Reaching More Patients Through Telemedicine
When the pandemic started, patients were wary about visiting medical facilities after the virus entered the borders of the United States. The situation resulted in the delay in providing care for patients who needed to consult their doctors.
Telemedicine helped alleviate the situation since patients could consult their doctors using their computers and mobile devices. The technology also allowed doctors to see patients living in remote places even if they stayed in their offices.
Latest developments in technology also facilitated the virtual examination and diagnosis of the patients. In some cases, technology helped doctors treat their patients even if they did not visit the doctor’s office.
But there were some limitations to the use of the technology in some states. Despite this, the technology’s benefits outweighed these limitations as it allowed patients to consult their doctors while staying safe from the virus.
Use of Wearable Medical Devices
A survey conducted in the US showed that around 30 percent of American adults use wearable medical devices. These devices monitor the health of their users. The technology also informed their doctors about the health of the patients. This is a major improvement from the time when people only consulted their doctors when they felt sick.
Wearable devices encouraged patients to focus on preventing diseases and ensuring that they remain healthy. People experiencing health issues should also consider wearing these devices since they allow their doctors to monitor their health. Some of the devices that patients should consider using are heart rate sensors, oximeters, sweat meters, and exercise trackers.
Mobile Health Monitors
Wearable medical devices connect patients with their doctors. But the patients also have the option of monitoring their health by using mobile medical apps that they install on their mobile devices. These mobile health monitors allow patients to check their vital signs and watch out for symptoms of the diseases they are dealing with.
This allows medical professionals to focus on their task of taking care of patients in the hospital. It also gives doctors and nurses some breathing room after dealing with millions of cases of the virus causing the current pandemic.
Employing Virtual Medical Assistants
Technology also allowed medical facilities to outsource administrative tasks to virtual medical assistants. This allowed medical professionals to focus on taking care of the patients. The administrative tasks that these virtual medical assistants handled included answering calls, maintaining financial records, scheduling appointments, and processing medical bills.
In addition to virtual medical assistants, medical facilities also outsourced medical scribe services to companies offering these services. Employing these companies allows in-house staff to focus on other important tasks, including patient care and monitoring. These companies handle patient record data entry, in-depth review of the patient’s medical history, and organizing the electronic health records (EHR) of the patients.
Big Data to Facilitate Healthcare
Big data also offers many benefits to the healthcare industry as it facilitates the storage and analysis of patient information. Their analysis of patient records provides medical professionals with the information that they need to properly diagnose and treat their patients.
Big data facilitates preventive care by creating preventive medical care for patients who frequently require emergency room care. The software analyzes records and identifies these patients and the medical care that they require.
The software used for big data also reduces medication error rates since it compares information on the health of the patient and their prescriptions. This allows the software to spot inconsistencies and alert the patient and medical professionals about them.
The predictive analysis feature of big data also allows medical facilities to evaluate future admission rates. This allows medical facilities to make adjustments to their future staffing needs. This is important since many nurses and doctors are experiencing burnout due to the pandemic.
Advances in technology facilitated the improvement of patient care as it allowed medical professionals to focus on taking care of patients in the hospitals.
