7 Features for the Best Telemedicine Solution

Healthcare enterprises are increasingly adopting telemedicine solutions to address challenges like resource strain from rising chronic diseases, staff shortages, escalating costs, and limited rural coverage.

To effectively meet these challenges, healthcare providers must make informed choices when selecting a telemedicine (telehealth) solution. The right telemedicine solution should ensure seamless communication between patients and doctors. It should be reliable, scalable, and compliant with HIPAA standards, ensuring optimal outcomes for your practice.

This article outlines seven essential features to consider when choosing a telemedicine solution.

7 Essential Features to Consider When Choosing a Telemedicine Solution

Selecting the right telemedicine platform is crucial for healthcare providers looking to improve care delivery while managing growing patient demands. A robust solution should integrate features like high video quality, robust security, and cross-platform compatibility, enabling healthcare organizations to provide seamless care across diverse clinical settings.

Here are seven crucial features to consider when evaluating a telemedicine solution:

1. Flexibility for Diverse Healthcare Services
2. High-Quality Video Streaming
3. HIPAA Compliance and Security 
4. Scheduling and Appointments
5. Cross-Platform Compatibility
6. Seamless Integrations with Existing Systems
7. Customization Capabilities

Let’s explore each feature in detail.

1. Flexibility for Diverse Telehealth Use Cases

In telemedicine, software flexibility is critical for delivering various clinical services, from virtual consultations to chronic disease management and remote monitoring. This adaptability ensures healthcare providers can meet specific medical needs and make timely clinical decisions, regardless of the patient’s location.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions offers a range of flexible, customizable options to meet the unique needs of each department, seamlessly aligning with clinical workflows. The solution supports various use cases, including:

• Emergent/Urgent Care: Streamlines triage, provides instant access to specialists, facilitates peer collaboration, and supports comprehensive case management.
• Acute Care: Enables virtual rounding, remote ICU observation, and coordinated multi-specialty consults.
• At-Home Care: Supports early intervention and chronic condition management with video-enabled remote patient observation, extending care beyond hospital walls.
• Ambulatory Care: Enhances access to specialists, enables better chronic condition management through remote monitoring, and reduces readmissions, improving overall patient retention.
• Post-Acute Care: Improves outcomes, reduces costs, and increases satisfaction with remote follow-ups and coordinated care for complex cases.
• Remote Monitoring: Provides remote diagnoses and treatments, essential for isolated patients and when medical resources are limited.

2. High-Quality Video Streaming

Telemedicine solutions must enable seamless connections between patients and doctors, offering experiences comparable to in-person visits. Reliable, high-quality video is essential to prevent miscommunication and ensure accurate diagnoses, as poor audio or visuals can lead to gaps in care.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions offers 4K/5K high-definition video, enabling healthcare providers to conduct precise patient examinations remotely. This high level of clarity helps clinicians accurately assess visible symptoms, such as skin conditions or wound care, which in turn leads to more accurate diagnoses and reduced hospital visits.

For example, Sutter Health’s telestroke system utilizes Telehealth Solutions to diagnose and treat strokes, where subtle symptoms can be easily missed. With the system’s HD and low-latency video, stroke neurologists can assess critical signs such as facial weakness, slurred speech, and limb numbness as if in the same room. This allows Sutter’s CPMC stroke team to evaluate patients in under 10 minutes, ensuring timely and effective care. 

3. HIPAA Compliance and Security 

In 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reported 725 large security breaches and 133 million breached records in healthcare. These breaches don’t just pose legal and financial risks—they erode patient trust and damage the reputations of healthcare providers. 

To address these security threats, HIPAA compliance in telemedicine is essential. Telemedicine platforms must implement strong encryption, secure data transmission, and stringent access controls to protect electronic protected health information (ePHI) from unauthorized access. Beyond legal requirements, maintaining compliance is crucial for building patient trust and ensuring their sensitive data is well-protected. 

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions is fully HIPAA compliant, ensuring end-to-end encryption for all video transmissions and preventing unauthorized access. The platform does not store or access patient data and provides secure communication channels. Additionally, it signs Business Associate Agreements with healthcare providers, ensuring third-party compliance with HIPAA regulations.

For added security, features such as meeting locking, waiting rooms, and PIN protection further safeguard patient privacy during telehealth consultations.

4. Scheduling and Appointments

An efficient appointment scheduling feature in telemedicine solutions enables patients to book, cancel, or reschedule appointments through an online portal or app. This convenience eliminates long phone queues and provides flexibility, improving the patient experience.

For healthcare centers, automating the scheduling process minimizes the need for manual coordination. It streamlines administrative workflows, allowing staff to focus on more critical, patient-facing tasks, improving overall efficiency.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions enhances the scheduling experience across multiple clinics. Patients receive appointment reminders through their preferred communication channels and can join appointments with one click—eliminating the need to download apps or remember login details. Additionally, clinics can deploy post-visit surveys and check-ins to increase patient satisfaction.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions also includes a virtual waiting room feature, which allows patients to wait comfortably before their appointments and helps clinics manage patient flow more effectively.

5. Cross-Platform Compatibility

With telemedicine on the rise, adaptability across devices has become essential. Rock Health’s 2022 Survey reported a 12% increase in live phone consultations (up to 57%) and an 11% rise in health app usage (48%). As patients and healthcare providers increasingly rely on desktops, tablets, and smartphones, telemedicine platforms must function seamlessly across operating systems like iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.

Cross-platform compatibility ensures telemedicine applications operate effortlessly across devices, improving patient accessibility and healthcare provider efficiency. This feature allows patients to transition between devices during consultations, ensuring uninterrupted care regardless of where or how they connect.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions delivers a unified experience across Android, macOS, iOS, Windows, and WebRTC platforms. Whether accessed on a desktop, tablet, smartphone, or kiosk, patients and providers can seamlessly connect across devices, ensuring flexible and reliable care delivery. 

Moreover, Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions integrates with off-the-shelf software endpoints, offering a versatile and user-friendly telemedicine experience.

6. Seamless Integrations with Existing Systems

Healthcare providers rely on multiple systems working together. A telemedicine platform that integrates with both front-end and back-end systems improves operational efficiency and reduces vendor management challenges.

By integrating with EHRs and medical devices, telemedicine platforms ensure real-time access to updated patient records, minimizing administrative tasks and improving decision-making for healthcare professionals.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions supports integration with leading EHR systems like Epic, Allscripts, and Cerner, ensuring unified patient records. This comprehensive access enhances care coordination and enables more informed decisions.

Additionally, Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions connects with medical devices such as blood glucose monitors, O2 saturation monitors, stethoscopes, and blood pressure cuffs, facilitating remote patient monitoring and timely interventions.

7. Customization Capabilities 

Customization in telemedicine platforms is crucial for meeting the specific needs of healthcare providers, improving usability, and ensuring a seamless user experience. By offering a branded interface, telemedicine solutions make virtual visits feel like an extension of the provider’s practice, delivering a professional and consistent healthcare experience.

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions excels in this area by enabling white-labeling and custom branding, helping healthcare centers maintain their unique identity. This fosters patient trust and enhances the continuity of care.

Customization options include:

• Changing the app name, logo, and color scheme to match your brand.
• Adding or removing features to suit workflow needs.
• Changing button placement and descriptions for better navigation.
• Offering multi-language support.
• Adding unique features for specific clinical needs.

These capabilities help healthcare providers deliver a user-friendly, branded experience that boosts patient satisfaction and loyalty.

With all of these essential features combined, Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions provides a robust, all-in-one platform that empowers healthcare providers to deliver top-tier virtual care. Here’s why it truly stands out in the telemedicine market.

Why Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions is a Game-Changer

With the global telemedicine market expected to reach $432.31 billion by 2032, selecting the right solution has never been more important. 

Enghouse Video’s Telehealth Solutions sets itself apart with unmatched flexibility, security, and customization. Delivering 4K UltraHD video streaming, even in low-bandwidth areas, it ensures seamless virtual care. With easy integration into existing workflows, the platform streamlines everything from one-click scheduling and patient check-ins to triage and technology self-tests.

Patient data is protected through full HIPAA and GDPR compliance, while SRTP media encryption guarantees secure communication. Trusted by over 10,000 users in more than 120 countries, this solution offers not just cost savings but real improvements in patient outcomes and collaborative interdisciplinary care.