As hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 demand, load balancing via telehealth can help them continue to serve the public. Telehealth has no geographic limitations. If a patient calls for a consultation and a hospital is at full capacity, they can transfer the call to another hospital that can handle the load, regardless of location.
This concept is called geographic load balancing, and it’s a system that can help to spread out the load more evenly to a network of participating hospitals.
How does load balancing work?
The highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic has placed a unique burden on healthcare providers — but luckily telehealth provides a load balancing solution. For some hospitals, load balancing looks like tapping into an additional source of remote physicians. For others, it could mean ensuring you aren’t burning out one team while another doesn’t have enough work. Due to the virtual nature of telehealth platforms, assisting physicians can be based anywhere. Thus, overwhelmed providers can transfer the load to other locales that have extra bandwidth.
Load balancing through telehealth has also allowed hospitals to maximize the use of their workforce by letting quarantined health workers continue to take calls virtually. By using telehealth to handle emergency and outpatient consultations virtually, and thus replacing the need for physical attendance, overburdened hospitals can further prevent overcrowding and better manage patient influx.
Challenges in using telehealth for load balancing
The goal of a good load balancing solution is to help ease the workload for healthcare institutions and make access to critical care easier for patients — not to add complexity to the process. Yet some platforms are difficult to set up. Some telehealth solutions have interfaces that are too complicated to navigate for new users. Physicians who are already strapped for time may need extra training to understand the system. Meanwhile, patients can end up confused or frustrated.
That’s why at Vidyo, we provide a user friendly experience that can integrate into your existing workflows.
How VidyoConnect Medical Cart and Patient Room can help healthcare providers balance their load
Through VidyoConnect, we developed two solutions that tackle the challenges of delivering effective telehealth services from both the physician and patient side: VidyoConnect Medical Cart and VidyoConnect Patient Room. VidyoConnect Medical Cart is designed to help physicians deliver healthcare services far more efficiently. Meanwhile, VidyoConnect Patient Room helps patients feel secure and at ease with using a telehealth platform.
Personalized care
Through VidyoConnect’s real-time, high-quality video delivery, physicians can remotely conduct consultations while patients can feel attended-to in an immersive and secure environment. The system optimizes queue times by automatically routing patients to the first available physician or caregiver. Family members or guardians can also receive secure access when the patient needs extra assistance. By involving family members in consultations, patients are more likely to adhere to medications.
Quality care
Physicians can continue to do their rounds virtually and monitor ICUs on-demand, wherever they are. When a patient’s case requires consultation from multiple disciplines, VidyoConnect makes it possible to have remote access to world-class doctors in a few clicks. VidyoConnect also supports a range of medical devices, such as Epic Monitor, digital stethoscopes, and horus scopes. This means physicians can still deliver the same comprehensive testing as in a physical setting, so patients receive the same quality of care.
Easy to use
Unlike other telehealth solutions that have a high learning curve, VidyoConnect uses a simple interface with familiar icons. The welcome screen is also easily customizable. This way, it’s easier for physicians to configure, and for patients to understand how to use the platform.
Secure environment
VidyoConnect is fully encrypted and HIPAA-compliant on both media and signaling. Additionally, healthcare institutions can easily set up VidyoConnect and even white-label it so that the interface features their brand. When used properly, this interconnected system should make it easy for patients and physicians to continuously adopt telehealth processes, so that load balancing will be less of a challenge for healthcare institutions.
Learn more about VidyoConnect for your healthcare institution
Telehealth is no longer simply nice to have — it’s crucial for hospitals to continue serving the public. If you want to learn how VidyoConnect Patient Room and Medical Cart can help you balance the load in your hospital systems, contact info@vidyo.com.