Rural medical practices face increasing financial pressure, staffing shortages, and challenges with patient accessibility. With 700 rural hospitals at risk of closing, healthcare leaders must find scalable, cost-effective ways to maintain patient care and protect revenue. Telehealth is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity.
More than 60 million Americans — about one-fifth of the United States population — live in rural areas. As noted by the U.S. Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, this population often encounters the following obstacles:
- Rural residents are older, poorer, and more likely to have chronic diseases than urban residents.
- Rural hospitals are typically smaller than urban hospitals.
- Rural hospitals provide a higher percentage of care in outpatient settings. They are more likely to offer home health, skilled nursing, and assisted living, all of which have lower Medicare margins than inpatient care.
- Rural hospitals rely more heavily on reimbursement from public programs, whose payments fall short of costs.
The shortage of healthcare professionals in rural areas of the U.S. does little to ameliorate access to care. Approximately 65 percent of rural areas have a shortage of primary care physicians. The patient-to-primary care physician ratio in rural communities is only 39.8 physicians per 100,000 people compared to 53.3 physicians per 100,000 residents in urban areas.
The 1,821 rural community hospitals in the U.S. handle more than 21.5 million emergency visits annually. However, roughly 200 rural hospitals have closed over the past two decades, and over 700 more are at risk of closing in the near future.
About 26 percent of rural Americans say there has been a time in the past few years when they needed health care but did not get it. Many must travel a fair distance to reach a specialist or a bigger, more technologically-advanced hospital. Some can’t afford this travel, which also results in them receiving less preventive care.
With higher operational costs, staffing shortages, and declining reimbursements, rural healthcare providers need cost-effective, scalable solutions to maintain patient care. Recruiting thousands of new doctors isn’t realistic, but integrating telehealth and a HIPAA-compliant communication system is.
For telehealth to truly work, healthcare providers need a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use communication system. That means having a HIPAA-compliant VoIP phone system, video calling, and secure messaging that integrates seamlessly with existing workflows. Without the right infrastructure, telehealth’s potential is wasted.
Telehealth’s Role in Rural Access
Along with digital tools that enable healthcare providers and their patients to communicate more effectively—e.g., automated two-way text messaging and patient portals—telehealth continues to be a valuable tool in overcoming obstacles to access to care. Most commonly used in the medical fields of dermatology, urology, chronic disease, intensive care and mental health, telehealth is becoming more prevalent in rehabilitation services, including physical, occupational, and speech therapy.
More than 70 percent of physicians report using telehealth, and 86.9 percent of hospitals offer telehealth services. Telehealth is the most recognized type of virtual care, having increased 38 times higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some healthcare providers employ telehealth technology to manage chronic conditions, monitor patients in real-time, manage medications, provide individual and group patient education, supervise rehabilitation and self-management techniques, and serve as follow-up visits once the patient is discharged. According to the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub), effective healthcare services administered through telehealth technology in rural communities include:
- Chronic care management interventions
- Provider-to-provider models
- Access to emergency care providers in real time for evaluations and consults to local providers
- Home monitoring
- Intensive care units (ICUs)
- Long-term care
- Online therapy and remote counseling
- Telepharmacy
- Virtual professional communities
- Interpreter services
- School-based telehealth
Patient Satisfaction with Telehealth
According to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and NPR, 24 percent of rural adults report using telehealth for healthcare within the past few years. Twenty-five percent have received a diagnosis or treatment for a chronic condition, and 16 percent have received a diagnosis or treatment for an emergency. Almost 90 percent of telehealth patients say they were very or somewhat satisfied with the diagnosis or treatment they received in their most recent experience.
Telehealth technologies enable residents of rural areas of the U.S. to receive high-quality healthcare without having to drive a long distance to an urban-based hospital or health system. They also allow providers from different facilities to collaborate on patient care. Clinical consultations conducted through video visits are associated with high patient satisfaction and lower costs without a difference in clinical outcomes compared to in-person consultations.
It’s not only patients asking for telehealth to be part of their healthcare journey, although almost 88 percent of patients want to continue using it for nonurgent consultations. Research from the American Medical Association (AMA) shows that physicians have overwhelmingly responded positively to its implementation:
- Roughly 85 percent indicated that telehealth increased the timeliness of care.
- Approximately 75 percent said telehealth allowed them to deliver high-quality care.
- More than 70 percent were motivated to increase telehealth use.
Mitigating Barriers to Mental Health Care
The U.S. continues to face a shortage of mental health professionals, with 350 individuals for every one such provider. The sparsity is worse in rural areas, where many patients cannot access convenient and affordable healthcare.
It has been found that technological advances offer the potential for greater access to mental health care at lower cost with better outcomes. Telehealth gives patients more expansive and private access to mental health resources. Plus, it offers improved emergency and mental health care, reduced cost structure, and the creation of virtual support groups to the 160 million Americans who live in areas with mental health professional shortages.
Facilitating Telehealth Through a HIPAA-Compliant Communications Platform
Telehealth offers flexibility to providers by allowing them to see more patients in less time and, when necessary, conduct visits away from their offices. This results in increased reimbursement and patient satisfaction. Telehealth also has the potential to improve patient outcomes by allowing doctors to communicate quickly and cost-effectively with other physicians about patient care.
When a physician practice lacks a versatile video conferencing tool suitable for various communication needs, all those advantages are for naught. Medical groups employing a feature-rich Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system can easily conduct secure video calls and remote consultations. Their patients can easily join video calls through a web browser without downloading or installing any application, reducing frustration and technical barriers.
At RingRx, our HIPAA-compliant communications platform helps healthcare practices of all sizes and specialties facilitate remote appointments, allowing them to reach more patients, including those in remote or underserved areas. Through RingRx Video, they can provide care to patients who can’t meet face-to-face or prefer the convenience of video, boosting patient capacity and engagement.
Schedule a demo today to see how our healthcare-specific communications solutions can expand your practice, increase satisfaction by meeting patient preferences, and bolster your revenue.
