On-Demand Patient Care
Suppose you are going out for a long holiday in some village or some rural areas. After a few days, suddenly you get a high fever and you are not able to contact any good physician or doctor.
You don’t have time to wait for hours at an urgent care center or, terrible, the emergency room (ER). What would you do then? With just a few taps on your smartphone, you can contact a physician or a doctor on video conference and you may book an appointment with a doctor who can arrive on your doorstep around a couple of minutes and see you immediately. And that’s how On-demand healthcare works. On-Demand healthcare is a consequence of a worldwide healthcare transformation that allows customers to get the treatment they want, when they want it and wherever they want.
Cutting benefits with on-demand services
In a broad sense, healthcare on-demand links patients with accessible healthcare professionals in actual time via websites, smartphone applications, and sometimes even home visits. And it’s allowing a smartphone click, underscoring a shift in consumer behavior fueled by companies like DoorDash and Lyft. It is more than just a national lack of healthcare professionals and specialists, increasing wait times at urgent care clinics or hospital ERs is also a big issue and in this situation healthcare on demand is clearly a wonderful addition to the sector.
Dr. Kenneth Abrams, a managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP, remarked, “Users, habituated to the ease and connection of other demand-driven businesses, are looking for healthcare services in the same form.”
The global healthcare business is undergoing tremendous development, with healthcare organizations inherently aiming to enhance service delivery and increasingly providing instant access to specialist knowledge for the treatment of non-life-threatening ailments. According to a 2016 Wall Street Journal article, over 60% of Americans prefer to be receptive to digital healthcare, as indicated by the estimated 1.2 million American patients taking treatment through virtual doctor’s visits in 2016. We are now on the verge of fast development, thanks to the advent of IoT into the healthcare sector, as we embrace a modern approach to the delivery of these activities.
The United States has been the most competitive marketplace for on-demand healthcare delivery, with a wide range of highly valued portals possessing already created a stamp, as they effectively interact with patients to access healthcare professionals via mobile websites and apps to provide consultations, schedule appointments, or even address questions for home visits by healthcare professionals. According to Accenture’s study “Healthcare: For Here or to Go,” reported on Feb. 2, financing for so-called “on-demand healthcare providers” — that provide location-based packages with relatively close as well as 24/7 services — will more than quadruple from over $200 million in 2014 to $1 billion by the end of 2017. What would be interesting here is the on-demand healthcare players’ incredibly high usefulness and massive success over the years, which has recently attracted a lot of investor attention. Investing in such services will very probably increase over time, as we anticipate a bright and hopeful future for them.
How does on-demand fare in comparison?
While it is not suited for life-threatening crises, on-demand treatment is gaining popularity for follow-up appointments, mental health counseling, some specialist care, and a variety of minor diseases and injuries.
Furthermore, it has the potential to save money for the healthcare consumer. According to a survey by the California Health Care Foundation, a virtual visit costs 40% less than a primary care provider visit and 4% less than an ER visit. Furthermore, the typical co-pay for an urgent care visit in 2018 is $150 per patient, but Doctor on Demand lists a 15-minute doctor’s appointment for $75 (costs may vary depending on insurance), making on-demand treatment’s flat-rate straightforward and especially appealing to the uninsured.
Critics argue that on-demand won’t provide the same kind of continuity of care as a “medical home.” “Physicians might not even get access to patient data, and the sector may become commoditized as a result. Patients may become overly reliant on on-demand care because of its ease and low cost.
Most of these stumbling blocks, nevertheless, have been examined. Moreover, on-demand treatment should complement rather than replace a yearly checkup or even a relationship with a primary care practitioner. “Even if this isn’t the ideal way to see a doctor, it’s still better than not visiting one at all,” says the author “Pallett stated.
On-Demand in the Future
The introduction of on-demand healthcare may well be considered as a disturbance to the profitability of traditional healthcare, similar to how ride-share companies affected the transportation sector. In actuality, it provides another low-cost, simple option for patients.
“Investment in on-demand healthcare and cross-industry collaboration will eventually lead to a transition from a goods-and-services paradigm to a life-care model, offering patients with individualized services that address a variety of daily needs, according to Safavi.”
“On-demand care is already having a significant influence on the healthcare industry,” Abrams said, “pushing firms to become more consumer-centric and fundamentally transforming the way care is given today.” “As on-demand healthcare becomes more popular, organizations will see a movement away from centralized acute care and toward more treatment delivered to individual households.” On-demand healthcare isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s simpler than ever to secure money and transform your ideas into a digital reality, thanks to investors who are interested in new on-demand healthcare solutions.
