Telehealth has been an option for many people since its inception many years ago. However, not many opted for such an option, knowing that it was still in its early stages. As years passed, people slowly warmed up to the market, and it’s only recently when its users started to grow drastically. It has become a vital healthcare service in many homes, and it’s expected to grow even more significantly as the years go by.
It’s estimated that telehealth users had increased by millions when the pandemic had the country last year. Because of this, telehealth services have spiked by 5,000%, one of the highest increases in demanded services in the past few years. One of the main reasons why this happened, because of the aging population.
About 54 million seniors are living in the US, and this number is growing. Unfortunately, most of them can’t get out of their homes due to their vulnerabilities to the virus. This is where telehealth comes in.
Monitoring
Telehealth makes it easier for healthcare providers to monitor the lives of seniors inside their households. Many providers can quickly check in with them during emergencies or casually call them and ask how they are doing.
When used with other health monitoring products, such as smartwatches, every senior’s health subscribed to telehealth services is accessible to many. Even their family members can keep an eye out on them, and healthcare professionals can easily dial their number as well.
Conference calls are also essential when discussing various healthcare plans for the senior. In addition, everyone can join the session, making it far more efficient instead of having everyone visit the clinic.
Home Health Care
Another way telehealth is making lives easier for seniors is through home health care. By combining a senior’s home care services with telehealth, healthcare professionals can keep track of their diet, activities, and rest time. This is very helpful to those prone to disease or who might have mental health illnesses such as dementia.
Furthermore, home health care can now be directed in a way that’s specific to the client’s needs. This makes it much easier to micro-manage certain activities that the senior needs throughout the week. Overall, telehealth in combination with home health care makes the service a lot more in-depth and robust.
Outpatient Care
Outpatient care is also improving due to telehealth. We all know the pain of recovering inside a hospital. It’s so boring and sometimes even problematic. Unwanted bills continue to pile up as we continue to stay in our hospital rooms, knowing that we can recover the same way in the comfort of our bedrooms. This is the same problem that most seniors face.
Nowadays, hospitals are more lenient with bringing home seniors, knowing that telehealth is there to help with their outpatient care. If the patient no longer shows severe symptoms of the particular disease, doctors can now send them home and monitor them through telehealth services. This helps both the senior and the hospital.
It can help the hospital because it opens up a room for others, and as we all know, rooms are a rare commodity during the pandemic. It can help seniors because they can now rest easy in the comfort of their own homes without worrying about rising medical bills or blood samples. Some studies have even found that outpatient recovery in combination with telehealth has led to faster recovery rates and fewer return visits to the hospital.
Quality of Life Improvements
The many other ways telehealth is making the lives of seniors better is by improving their overall quality of life. It reduces the physical activity required to get check-ups, reduces the time of in-person appointments, and even reduces costs. Moreover, it also makes it easier to treat advanced illnesses that make leaving home a risk, such as dementia.
We all know the significant problems of in-person appointments, and we all know that they have their strengths, too. There are some things that telehealth sessions can’t do those in-person sessions can. However, telehealth’s quality of life improvements to seniors is too much to pass on. It’s a crucial necessity during this pandemic, and maybe even in the future.
Final Thoughts
Experts believe that telehealth will be here to stay because online communications continue to improve every year. There might even come a time when seniors never have to leave home for their appointments and only go to hospitals for emergencies. Such a future is near, and when that day comes, seniors will live a much easier life.
