ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Telemedicine continues evolving from a specialty-centric offering to a mainstream service, according to the results from the REACH Health 2016 U.S. Telemedicine Industry Benchmark Survey. Roughly two-thirds of respondents indicated that telemedicine was the top priority or one of the highest priorities for their healthcare organization – a 10 percent increase from the 2015 survey results.
“Telemedicine decision-making is rapidly moving from individual departments and specialties to an enterprise initiative,” said Steve McGraw, President and CEO of REACH Health. “Both hospitals and health systems reported significant increases in the average number of telemedicine service lines which are active or being implemented in concert.”
Though telemedicine programs for different medical specialties vary widely in maturity and clinical application, all service lines studied share a high degree of activity in terms of planning and implementation. Additionally, disparate service lines are united in their top objectives, which are all patient-oriented. Improving patient outcomes, improving patient convenience, and increasing patient engagement and satisfaction are the top three most common objectives for telemedicine programs.
While telemedicine is becoming increasingly common across service lines and care settings, its growth is impeded primarily by two factors. Issues stemming from reimbursement and limitations of EMR systems account for six of the top seven challenges identified by survey participants.
“Telemedicine reimbursement poses the primary obstacle to success, but EMR-related challenges are persistent and widely noted in the survey,” said McGraw. “There is clearly a high demand in the industry for EMR integration, specifically the two-way flow of individual data elements between telemedicine platforms and EMR systems.”
The survey also examined program attributes and correlated them with success. As uncovered in the 2015 benchmark survey, the degree of focus of the telemedicine program manager was strongly correlated with success. Executive support revealed a significantly higher correlation with success than adequacy of funding.
“Based on the survey data and our experience working with many providers, it’s not surprising that executive support is so important to telemedicine success,” added McGraw. “Using an enterprise approach, hospital leadership seeks to replicate the well-documented improvements in care across multiple service lines and at affiliated hospitals.”
Three hundred ninety healthcare executives, physicians, nurses and other professionals participated in the comprehensive telemedicine industry survey, which covered a wide variety of telemedicine-related topics such as priorities, program models, management structures and more. To receive a complimentary copy of the full survey report, please register at: http://reachhealth.com/telemedicine-industry-survey.
About REACH Health
REACH Health is the leading enterprise telemedicine software company, providing solutions for multiple specialties and settings of care, all supported on one common software platform. Designed by hands-on physicians and expert software engineers, these solutions are recognized for fostering collaboration between bedside clinicians and remote specialists through shared clinical workflows. These solutions are also highly configurable, enabling physicians to tailor each consultation based on personal preferences and the information specific to their medical specialty.
REACH Health pioneered one of the nation’s first telestroke programs and continues to be the innovation leader, delivering groundbreaking advancements in telemedicine and telehealth. Today, many of the nation’s most successful telemedicine programs rely on REACH to achieve measurable improvements in their clinical, operational and financial performance.
