Telehealth has transformed healthcare delivery. By leveraging digital and telecommunication technologies, telehealth provides consultations, diagnostics and health information without requiring patients and medical personnel to physically meet each other. This has made healthcare more accessible to a wider range of patients, reduced the strain on medical teams and facilities and enhanced efficiency across the industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted telehealth’s importance as it maintained healthcare delivery while minimizing virus transmission risks. It showed how flexible, scalable and powerful telehealth is. Even with the pandemic behind us, the ongoing need for convenient, accessible healthcare and the benefits telehealth provides—such as flexibility for patients and providers—warrants its continued adoption across the global healthcare ecosystem.
To fully enjoy these benefits, telehealth needs to tackle a few challenges, from talent acquisition to technology to security. Addressing these challenges is essential for the sustainable growth and widespread adoption of telehealth and for ensuring quality patient care. Below, we list five of the most prominent challenges, along with actionable strategies to overcome them.
1. Talent Acquisition and Retention
One of the primary challenges facing the telehealth industry is talent acquisition and retention. The inability to find and retain skilled workers can impede the growth and efficiency of telehealth services. The WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030. With telehealth being a part of healthcare, this shortage is expected to impact telehealth as well.
The Solution
To address these challenges, it is important to treat employees as valued members of the organization. For example:
- Implement employee engagement programs to create a supportive and inclusive work environment
- Provide competitive compensation packages that reward employees for their contributions
- Celebrate successes and recognize achievements
- Allow for flexible working arrangements
- Invest in training programs that nurture internal talent and provide opportunities for career growth
- Onboard new employees quickly to help new hires feel welcomed and integrated into the company quickly and create employee loyalty. Logistical challenges when shipping devices can create frustrations for new employees, reducing morale and productivity.
2. Quality Control
Ensuring that all patients receive the same high standard of care can be difficult, given the varied needs, preferences and capabilities of different patient populations. For example, a qualitative study of telehealth expansion during the Covid pandemic unveiled that “telehealth requires a fundamentally different way of communicating with patients, with a dampening effect on the quality of patient–provider relationships. … creates a thinner interaction between patients and providers, straining the relationship and increasing the need for trust while reducing avenues to establish and maintain trust.”
The Solution
To address these issues, telehealth companies should introduce trackable quality controls, such as standardized procedures and practices that all teams must follow. Quality audits and regular monitoring through centralized systems can also help identify and rectify any inconsistencies in service delivery. This approach ensures a uniform experience for all patients.
In addition, actively seeking and incorporating patient feedback can help telehealth providers better understand and respond to the needs of their patients, ensuring satisfaction and continuous improvement. This will enhance the overall patient experience.
3. Technological Integrations
Legacy healthcare systems were not designed to support modern telehealth applications. This means that providers will need to implement new technologies. This integration process can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, posing a substantial hurdle for telehealth providers. Moreover, not any technology will do. The aforementioned study found that technology was a significant barrier to accessing telehealth, due to “digital literacy, technology and broadband access, limited data plans, older age, and provider satisfaction with telehealth”.
The Solution
New technologies should be integrated gradually and through pilot programs to minimize disruption and ensure smooth transitions. A phased approach allows telehealth providers to test and refine new systems before full-scale implementation, reducing the risk of operational disruptions.
Any initiatives for adopting AI should be carried out with careful planning and significant investment. AI has the potential to streamline operations, enhance patient care, and reduce costs. The challenge lies in ensuring that it is integrated in a way that is secure, maintains privacy, provides accurate answers and does not replace human judgment and care.
4. Securing Remote Workers
Enabling telehealth practitioners and employees to work remotely securely means that IT teams are hard at work behind the scenes. They need to ensure security standards and hygiene on managed and unmanaged devices, address compliance requirements and protect organizational, employee and patient data. Some ways to do so include shipping devices to employees or connecting through VDIs, which are both inefficient and expensive.
The Solution
The Blue Border secures telehealth employees and contractors on any unmanaged or personal computer without locking down every PC or dealing with virtual desktops.
- Work lives in a company-controlled Secure Enclave installed on the user’s PC or Mac
- All data is encrypted
- Access is managed
- Work applications run locally within the Enclave – visually indicated by a blue border
- Telehealth and personal activity are isolated from each other
- Organizational data is secured without controlling the entire device
- Privacy is guaranteed for everything outside the Blue Border
- HIPAA requirements are met
5. Cultural and Language Differences
Cultural and language differences can also present a significant challenge in the telehealth industry, in the context of global operations and diverse patient populations. Communication barriers can arise due to variations in accents, idioms and language proficiency, leading to misunderstandings and miscommunications. Culture sensitivity can also influence relationships. These barriers can affect the quality of care provided and the overall patient experience, as well as internal team dynamics and efficiency.
The Solution
To address these challenges, telehealth providers can:
- Run employee training programs focused on language and cultural sensitivity. These programs should cover various aspects, such as effective communication techniques, understanding and respecting cultural differences and addressing language barriers.
- Implement advanced translation software and services to ensure that communication remains clear and accurate, regardless of language proficiency levels. This technology can be particularly useful during patient consultations, where precise communication is crucial for accurate diagnosis and treatment. Gen AI seems to be particularly valuable in this use case.
- Develop clear procedures and documentation for standardizing interactions and minimizing confusion. Providing guidelines on how to communicate effectively, including preferred language, tone and etiquette, can help team members navigate cultural differences more smoothly. Regularly updating and reinforcing these procedures ensures that all staff members remain aligned and aware of best practices.
- Build diverse teams that include individuals from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Diverse teams can support each other, share insights and complement each other’s abilities, leading to more effective problem-solving and innovation.
Conclusion
To improve healthcare and quality of medical services, telehealth providers need to overcome five key challenges:
- Talent acquisition
- Quality control
- Technology
- Security
- Culture
Throughout this blog, we’ve provided tried and true strategies to overcome these risks. Implementing them requires a blend of strategic thinking and planning, budget and leadership buy-in. In addition, we recommend implementing software, tools and technologies that can further support these initiatives.
For example, Venn’s Blue Border secures telehealth employees and contractors working on unmanaged computers. With Venn’s Blue Border™ software, work lives in a company-controlled Secure Enclave installed on the user’s computer, enabling IT teams to secure company data while ensuring end-user privacy. Learn more.
