Is Telehealth Successfully Benefiting Health in Rural Communities?

Telehealth has emerged as a powerful tool in healthcare over the last decade. Essentially, this practice is characterized by the use of digital technology in the reception of healthcare support.

One demographic of people many believe telehealth to be helping in a meaningful way is that of rural residents. However, many in the industry are now wondering if this is really true. Those interested in the problem of rural healthcare and the development of technological innovations in healthcare can benefit from exploring this question.

Here’s an exploration of the question does telehealth successfully benefit health in rural communities?

The Positive Impact of Telehealth on Rural Communities

While telehealth’s impact has been complex, there’s no doubt that it’s had some positive effects on the health of individuals living in rural American communities. Before exploring some of the challenges associated with telehealth in these communities, it’s helpful to explore the benefits it has had.

Here are some of the positive impacts of telehealth on rural communities.

Making Location Less Important

One of the biggest obstacles for rural residents trying to receive healthcare support has historically been location. For many rural residents, the closest healthcare facility is hours away. As one can imagine, this deters many people from receiving consistent check-ups and also makes it incredibly difficult to receive emergency care.

Fortunately, telehealth has presented itself as a solution to this problem in key ways. Specifically, communicating with healthcare professionals through digital means makes distance unimportant. As such, rural residents can get medical advice from the comfort of their own homes and be advised to travel to medical facilities when healthcare professionals, such as nurses and doctors, deem it necessary.

Making Healthcare and Healthcare Education More Accessible

Sadly, many rural communities suffer from higher rates of poverty than other locations in the United States. This often means that rural residents have less access to healthcare support and healthcare education resources.

Fortunately, given its extremely accessible nature, telehealth is helping to solve both of these complex problems typically found in rural communities. Many healthcare providers are now starting to offer telehealth services for lower costs, making consultations with medical professionals more attainable for low-income rural residents.

In addition to making treatments and consultations more accessible, telehealth is also making health-related education more accessible. Ultimately, this can result in rural residents engaging in healthier habits and, as a result, experiencing better health outcomes.

The Challenges of Implementing Telehealth in Rural Communities 

While telehealth has no doubt been beneficial to many rural residents, there are still key challenges that the healthcare field must overcome. Exploring these different problems is essential for understanding how challenging issues related to rural health actually are.

Here are the challenges associated with implementing telehealth in rural communities.

The Lack of Internet Connection in Rural Communities and Homes

As has been noted, telehealth utilizes digital technology to connect patients with medical professionals. Typically, this is accomplished through the use of digital devices that can connect to the internet. Dishearteningly, one of the biggest barriers to getting telehealth services to all rural residents is the fact that many rural homes don’t have an internet connection.

Without a widescale effort to spread the internet to all rural homes for little to no cost for residents, telehealth will not be able to reach its full potential. This being the case, telehealth can only truly transform the health of rural residents who have internet connections.

The Limits of Telehealth Care

When it comes to things like consultations, mental health appointments, and consistent check-ups, telehealth services can be an amazing resource. However, when it comes to more severe issues, remote care isn’t always enough for rural residents.

The sad truth is that remote healthcare services are not yet advanced enough to treat many different types of common ailments. This highlights the fact that telehealth is limited in its ability to help rural residents achieve optimal health outcomes in a variety of different scenarios. Ultimately, more facilities in rural communities are needed to truly ensure that rural residents are receiving all of the medical care they require.

Telehealth Isn’t the Final Solution for Rural Healthcare

Despite the fact that telehealth has a beneficial impact on the health of scores of rural residents, it’s still limited in key ways. This indicates that while telehealth may very well be part of the solution to the problem of rural health, it won’t be able to solve this gargantuan issue on its own. As time goes on and new innovative solutions emerge, many are hopeful that the problem of rural healthcare in America will be definitively overcome.

This article has been published in accordance with Socialnomics’ disclosure policy.