Breaking Down Barriers to Care
The New Role of Virtual Care Technology in Removing Barriers and Improving Connectivity Between Providers, Patients, and Families Access to quality care is one of the major challenges facing our healthcare system today. Rural areas—home to one in five Americans—are particularly hard hit as hospitals and other clinical resources leave smaller communities in an effort to consolidate operations and lower costs. This means millions of consumers nation-wide have to travel—sometimes for hours—to receive care. This is especially troublesome for pregnant women or those with chronic conditions. But there’s another aspect of care access that may be under the radar of most people. And that’s the lack of access to, and connectivity between, caregivers, patients, and their families. This is especially true in situations where the patient is in a critical care unit. A great example is the case of a premature baby. While infants often have to remain in the NICU for months, parents have to get back to their lives. Whether to return to a job or to take care of other children at home, it can be emotionally challenging for them to leave their newborn. The lack of real-time connectivity can increase anxiety, which increases calls to the