People are drawn to rural areas for many reasons. Small towns offer a lower cost of living, an abundance of space, easy access to nature, and a tight-knit community vibe. Yet rural towns across the country also face disparities in healthcare. An estimated 80% of rural America is underserved by the healthcare system.
Thankfully, technology is evolving and helping improve access to healthcare for millions of small-town Americans. WorldView offers solutions for home health and other care providers, including document storage and sharing and electronic signatures, allowing caregivers to treat patients in rural areas more quickly and effectively.
Current Challenges in Rural Healthcare
People living in smaller communities face healthcare challenges such as:
- Higher poverty rates
- Limited number of hospitals and facilities
- Fewer caregivers and other healthcare professionals
- Longer travel times to care facilities
- Lack of insurance
Rural health technology is helping bridge these gaps, making healthcare more accessible to people living in remote areas.
Technological Solutions
There are plenty of technological innovations improving access to healthcare in rural communities.
Telehealth
Telehealth and remote visits have expanded healthcare services for people who live far from hospitals and clinics. E-visits and virtual visits enable rural patients to receive care for minor issues without needing to travel long distances or endure long wait times.
For homebound patients and those without access to transportation, telehealth is a viable option for receiving important checkups and diagnostic visits. As a caregiver, you can assess your patients remotely and request an in-person visit if you think the problem is serious.
Workflow Automation
As the demand for healthcare professionals rises, so does the risk of burnout. This burnout may be partly due to the burden of administrative tasks. Managing electronic health records (EHR), patient notes, physician referrals, signatures, and other paperwork takes time away from patient care.
Better EHR and other systems allow you to automate parts of your workflow, such as updating orders, getting physician signatures, and managing document sharing and storage. These automations let your team spend less time on paperwork and more time treating patients, which can help with burnout.
Real-Time Health Records
If your home health or hospice agency serves patients in rural areas, your team likely spends a lot of time on the road. In these cases, it’s critical to equip your caregivers with accurate and up-to-date information.
With EHR and electronic documents, your team can better prepare for each visit to a rural area, avoiding the need to sift through outdated data and ensuring the right treatment equipment is on hand. Using a mobile solution also helps your team share data with other providers if they need to coordinate care. If a patient in a rural area has been delaying treatment, you may need to transfer them to another provider. Having the correct information on file speeds up that process.
Wearables and Other Diagnostic Tools
If you’re treating patients in rural areas, wearable devices, such as heart monitors and blood sugar sensors, allow you to collect valuable data. You and your team can track changes in a patient’s symptoms and reach out to schedule a visit if needed. These devices help you catch health issues earlier, which improves patient outcomes and saves your patients from making unnecessary trips to the office.
Point-of-care blood tests and imaging let your home health caregivers assess a patient on-site and determine whether they need to come in for further treatment. If your patient does need an in-person visit, their doctor will already have vital information to start treatment sooner.
How Technology Can Improve Rural Hospice Care
Hospice care manages symptoms for terminal patients and makes their final days more comfortable. It also supports family members by helping them understand their loved one’s disease and manage their grief. However, long travel times and high costs can keep rural patients from seeking hospice services.
The same rural health technology that enhances overall healthcare can also improve hospice care. Technology helps physicians coordinate hospice care with rural home health providers more quickly to start palliative care and/or hospice services. People often use the terms hospice and palliative care interchangeably, but you can offer palliative care to anyone with a chronic illness. They don’t have to be terminal.
Technology also helps you communicate clearly with a patient’s family members to support and guide them through their loved one’s final days.
Conclusion
Small-town living offers many benefits, but it makes access to healthcare more difficult. New technology helps patients in rural areas overcome traditional barriers that might otherwise prevent them from visiting their doctors. As a home health or hospice provider, technology lets you serve your patients more effectively so you can make the most of each visit.
With WorldView’s solution, your team can access real-time electronic documents and efficiently manage referrals and physician orders. You can coordinate care effectively to treat your small-town patients with ease. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
