Doctors see Spike in Online Consultation

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel Coronavirus, globally and in India bring consequences to the lives of ordinary people and more so for healthcare professionals. Doctors were at the forefront of the most significant change in this sector; they witnessed or had to deal with:

● An increased workload

● A large drop in the number of patients in OPD and IPD

● The reluctance of patients suffering from other ailments in visiting doctors

● A sudden drop in their incomes and increased expenses on protection measures

One of the significant disruptions the healthcare sector witnessed was an increase in demand for online consultation due to the risk of contamination.

The concept of online doctor consultation or telemedicine is not a new one and has been for at least the last two-and-a-half decades. Digital healthcare is providing healthcare consultation services via digital means using the Internet on broadband or mobile data.

Online practice needs a secure platform like Practo, Lybrate, DoctoriDuniya, or Protea to ensure confidentiality, book appointments, manage patient records, hold virtual meetings between patients and doctors, online acces s to diagnostic test reports, and other related services.

Pandemic forced to change the mindsets of everyone and shifts the focus from walk-in consultations to the acceptance of Online Consultations.

Pandemic Presented a new Growth Opportunity

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict lockdowns resulted in the number of patients coming to see the Doctor at clinics and hospitals. The NITI Aayog in its May 2020 report “Telemedicine: A Blessing in Disguise in Time of COVID-19” persuaded the government to actively adopt online patient management solutions to help reduce personal interactions, thus minimizing the risks.

Digital Healthcare saw spectacular month-on-month growth in the number of patients seeking an online consult with specialists or physicians. This increase is being driven by millennia’s or people in the age group 20 to 30 years seeking online doctor consultations for themselves and their parents.

Statistics to Support

● Over 50 million Indians availed of digital healthcare during the lockdown period, with over 80% being first-time users.

● Females made over 60% of all online consultations with one-third of them for gynecology.

● The most sought-after segments were gastroenterology, GP, dermatology, gynecology, and ENT. Together, these top five made up 59% of all consultations.

a) ENT specialists witnessed 6x growth as people confused symptoms of seasonal allergies with COVID-19 symptoms.

b) Millennials mostly used the online consults for orthopedics, and ophthalmology was up by 4x and 3x, respectively.

c) Requests for gastroenterology jumped by over 450% among all age groups.

d) Ophthalmology-related consultations saw the most massive jump among other specialties increasing by seven times.

e) Mental health concerns rose markedly and saw an increase in psychiatric consultations by 3.5x.

f) Pediatrics requests witnessed over 3.5x growth.

g) COVID-19 related online consults grew over 2.5x and accounted for every second GP consult.

● From March to May 2020, the top five metros with the most significant number of e-prescriptions were Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune; and the full five Tier II and Tier III cities were Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, and Indore.

● 30% of all online consultations were telephonic, 16% were via WhatsApp, 6% via SMS, and 48% were via phone call or video call.

● Over 70% of doctors polled found remote consultations an effective policy.

● There were, on average, 2.5x online consultations by Indians per month, 3.5x times higher than the average visits of 0.7x before the Coronavirus.

Benefits of Online Consultation

There are several benefits of seeking online consultation from medical practitioners using a virtual consultation platform. Consider some of them:

● For patients — ready access to specialists at affordable rates, the consultation process is personal and better than phone calls or messages.

● For insurers — complete medical history to serve genuine customers, keep fraudulent claims at a minimum; and

● For governments — systematic record-keeping, plan targeted long-term health policies, achieve universal primary healthcare coverage.

Healthcare for Distant Patients

The most significant advantage is for patients from remote places with no easy means to reach affordable and quality healthcare. Diagnosis and consultation for such patients are vital tools to complement in-person medical treatment, the barriers of location, commute, and physical effort easily overcome with a secure platform.

Doctor's and Healthcare Staff’s Personal Safety

Amid a pandemic, the biggest concern for society and governments is the personal safety of the frontline healthcare staff, especially doctors. Using the online patient management feature patients can book appointments with their doctors and consult them virtually.

Convenient Patient Care

Telemedicine offers many advantages for patients — like saving their time, cost, and effort in travel. Like doctors, patients and their attendants are also protected from unnecessary exposure to other vectors. They can book appointments anytime, for any slot of their choice, and with any doctor of their choice.

Cost-Effective for Providers

Hospitals can significantly reduce healthcare service costs with the help of remote patient monitoring & diagnostics and electronic storage of medical records. These cost savings can translate into savings for your patients and insurance providers.

Doctors can consult more patients, increasing throughput, and total billable hours. Reduced costs attract more patients.

Extended Reach of Medical Practitioners

Most qualified but fresh out of school medical practitioners need up to 7 to 10 years of practice in a reputed hospital to make a mark and be recognized by their name. By registering on a digital healthcare platform for giving online consults, such doctors can reach more patients in lesser time. The doctors can provide their highest level of medical care to patients in remote areas.

Increased Patient Engagement

A crowded hospital can cause patient disengagement and dissatisfaction. Like clients in any field, the cost of disengaged consumers is very high and affects everyone.

A few of the ways to better engage your patients are:

● Additional virtual follow-ups and online consultation at no additional charge;

● Maintaining proper appointments and patient care schedules;

● Helping your patients make healthy lifestyle choices and follow them;

● Proper communication of the diagnostic test results, course of treatment, share progress, and answer their questions; and

● Book their follow-up appointments and remind them with alerts and push notifications.

Build, Manage and Improve your Online Presence

Once you are listed on a platform as a verified medical practitioner, you will appear prominently in online searches, on the forum, and in significant search engines. Your current and potential patients can find available slots and book appointments directly from your profile page.

Digital Check-in for IPD

Your patients can fill online intake forms and submit their past medical records to generate IPD patient monitoring charts. Digital check-ins reduce chances of clerical errors, get insurance approvals, and integrates the billing with a unique patient ID.

Tap Additional Revenue Stream

With a free listing on DoctoriDuniya, you open a new revenue stream with minimum effort and zero investment. Enhanced digital exposure and reputation will get you more patients and revenues in your spare time. You can decide your time slots for patients to see & book consultations and determine your charges.

Reduce Patient No-shows

More appointments per slot are given in the traditional appointments booking system for doctors because of many no shows, increasing the waiting time for patients. The no-shows by patients reduce significantly as:

● They do not have to travel anywhere.

● They are sent regular email/SMS reminders and push notifications.

● The deposit before booking the appointment works as a strong deterrent for absentee patients.

Increase in eOPD time

A large number of patients will be inclined to take online consult service due to ease of availability.

Essential Features of online consultation tool-

● Tracking patient information

● Access medical history on a secure platform

● Schedule appointments for procedures as per the availability of specialists

● Digital check-ins for paperless admission

● Request diagnostic tests and reports, e-Prescriptions, and discharge summaries

● OPD management with color-coded patient scheduling

● IPD management, access, treatments, and discharge

● Integrated bill management with Insurance providers’ approvals and disbursals.

● Automatically verify and apply accrued benefits to patients.

● Send SMS, email, and push notifications.

● Analytical reports on average billing, no-shows, performance of clinic and practice

In DoctoriDuniya, COMO is the backbone of the online solution designed for doctors, clinics, and hospitals. COMO helps you to improve your digital footprint, allows your patient to book appointments online, digital check-ins, secure medical record-keeping, reminders, and many more facilities.

Steps to Register on COMO

● Register on doctoriduniya.com

● Add details for your practice, clinic, or hospital like medical registration, fees, timing, and services.

● Verify your details using a simple online verification process.

Many patients in metro and Tier II cities started to take online consults way before the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic as there was a latent demand. This trend is now catching up with Tier III cities, and smaller towns and platforms like DoctoriDuniya are bridging the gap.

Strictly, there are bound to be some limitations in telemedicine; the innovation is helping players like DoctoriDuniya to solve these issues and improve patient’s access to quality healthcare.