With more people staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more physicians are seeing existing and new patients remotely.
In fact, 74% of physicians who participated in a Texas Medical Association telephone town hall in April said they began using telemedicine for the first time only after March 1.
As the pandemic continues, remaining visible to your patients is essential to managing their health, building trust, and maintaining the viability of your practice.
Providing accurate practice information, implementing and posting visit procedures and safety measures, and communicating regularly with your patients are all steps you can take to foster your patient-physician relationships now and for years to come.
Here are a few more tips for connecting (or reconnecting) with patients with help from TMA:
- Update your profile on the TMA website and "check the box" for telemedicine: More than 40,000 searches have been done so far this year using TMA’s Find a Physician tool, where physicians now can indicate whether they offer telemedicine services, and enter free text to provide details about themselves or their practice.
- Highlight how your practice is serving patients: Use your patient portal, email, social media channels, and your practice website to communicate and stay top-of-mind to your patients – even without a scheduled appointment. Share or post resources that provide a roadmap for a successful visit or show you’re prioritizing patient safety, like TMA’s in-person visit checklist, telemedicine visit reference sheet, and in-practice materials.
- Leverage payer platforms: Update your information with all your contracted payers so patients who visit those sites know that you are now accepting patients for telemedicine visits as well. Visit the TMA website for a list of payers and links to help you make necessary changes.
- Communicate regularly about the new normal: Be proactive in acknowledging that COVID-19 affects nearly every facet of our lives, sometimes causing patients mental distress. Listen on-the-go to programs like COVID-19 Mental Health for Patients for help in identifying factors that contribute to distress, and for coping techniques you can recommend to patients. Share tools like TMA’s activity risk assessment chart to guide patients’ decisionmaking.
TMA is committed to providing Texas physicians with information and assistance with telemedicine and remote patient monitoring programs. Visit TMA’s telemedicine webpage for news, information, and other resources, including TMA's Practice Consulting services.
TMA’s practice viability experts also developed a Road to Practice Recovery Guide and Practice Viability Toolkit to help you make informed decisions about your practice’s finances.
Find more information, tools, and resources visit TMA’s COVID-19 Resource Center and Practice Viability pages, which are updated frequently.
Last Updated On
July 10, 2020
Originally Published On
July 10, 2020