{"id":868989,"date":"2025-07-15T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.steelcase.com\/?p=868989"},"modified":"2025-07-15T13:03:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:03:26","slug":"effective-webside-manner-what-does-it-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steelcase.com\/research\/articles\/topics\/healthcare\/effective-webside-manner-what-does-it-take\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective Webside Manner: What Does it Take?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Healthcare is personal and intimate. The relationship between patients, families, and clinicians requires trust, clear communication, and accurate assessments, which is why it has long been practiced face-to-face and in person. Yet, as medical professionals have responded to a global pandemic and changing needs, many organizations have fast-tracked plans for virtual care, which allows them to treat more people while keeping clinicians and patients safe.<\/span><\/p>\n

This shift is not new, but it is accelerating. Patients, accustomed to doing all sorts of activities from shopping to banking on their phones, have already started to develop an appreciation for the convenience of virtual care. At the same time, healthcare administrators face mounting pressure to advance\u00a0the Quadruple Aim<\/a>: improve population health, deliver better patient experiences, manage costs and improve clinician experiences \u2013 factors that all point toward opportunities virtual care can support.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, \u201cwebside manner\u201d (the virtual equivalent of bedside manner) is a key capability for clinicians and health systems to develop. Before this global pandemic, virtual care was growing as a way to deliver accessible and convenient care. In fact, according to the results of a 2018 Deloitte survey, almost 25% of U.S. consumers have already had a virtual healthcare appointment, a strong indication that it\u2019s quickly becoming mainstream. Now, more than ever, health systems need the ability to triage large numbers of people remotely and only bring in those who are experiencing the worst symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Technology is just the beginning<\/h3>\n

Developing and delivering an effective webside manner requires a lot more thought than just putting a webcam and some random furniture in an unused space that might feel like a broom closet. That\u2019s why Seth Starner, Steelcase Health Advanced Explorations leader, and Jordan Smith, WorkSpace Futures design researcher, has been studying technology-enabled care closely for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what was found: Of course, clinicians need a good internet connection and a quality webcam to do it right. But other essentials are often overlooked. Behaviors such as fidgeting, eye shifts and facial expressions may not be noticed during an in-person exam, but all get magnified onscreen and can be very off-putting to patients receiving virtual care.<\/p>\n

Although virtual care gets transmitted via cyberspace, the physical healthcare space<\/a> where participants are located is an important consideration — for both the patient and the clinician. Steelcase researchers uncovered compromising situations where spatial limitations presented very real obstacles to effective virtual care:<\/p>\n