Why More Employees Are Embracing Telemedicine

Typically, telemedicine costs a fraction of what employees (and employers) would spend on visits to urgent care clinics or emergency rooms. (Photo: Shutterstock)

➤➤ Join the GlobeSt.HEALTHCARE (formerly RealShare) conference December 3-4 in Scottsdale, AZ. The event will cover the industry’s major issues as well as the prevailing and upcoming trends in regulations, space use, budgeting, and technology implementation. Through panel discussions and peer-to-peer networking opportunities, the attendees will gather expert insights on how these factors will affect the development, operation, investment and design of healthcare real estate. Also, be sure to get your nomination in for our healthcare influencer and senior housing influencer feature. Click here to register and view the agenda.

Telemedicine isn’t a new concept. In fact, telemedicine dates back to the early 1920s when people were predicting doctors would soon use televisions and microphones to communicate with patients.

Obviously, telemedicine has advanced significantly since then—especially in the last 25 years with the introduction of the internet. During many of those intervening years, employees have been reticent to adopt telemedicine. Technical issues, quality of care and security concerns typically top the list of reasons many employees have not used telemedicine in the past. However, over the last few years, I’ve noticed a shift in employee behavior: More people are starting to embrace telemedicine. And, I’m not the only one taking notice. According to an article earlier this year, telemedicine use grew 1,398 percent from 2014 to 2018.

So, why the big shift in employee adoption? I see three big reasons: