Introduction Telehealth is the monitoring via remote exchange of physiological data between a patient at home and health care professionals at hospitals or clinics to assist with diagnosis and treatment. As our society ages and health care costs increase, government and private insurance payers are seeking technological interventions. Technological solutions may provide high quality healthcare services at a distance, utilize professional resources more effectively, and enable elderly and ill patients to remain in their own homes. Patients may experience decreased hospitalization and urgent care settings, and out of home care may not be required as the patient is monitored at home. However, no study has been able to prove telehealth benefits conclusively. This change in health care delivery presents new ethical concerns, and new relationship boundaries between health care professionals, patients, and family members. This paper will discuss telehealth benefits in specific patient populations, costs benefits of using telehealth, and concerns of using telehealth. Literature Review Telehealth has shown benefits in monitoring patients with chronic health conditions, decreasing hospital admissions and emergency room visits, and improving treatment regimen compliance at home. Zimmerman & Barnason (2007) investigated the use of telehealth devices with cardiac surgical patients. Health Buddy devices can deliver information, education, and professional support for post-operative cardiac patients. The patient’s responses triggered different algorithms to further individualize post-operative interventions (Zimmerman & Barnason, 2006). Health care professionals were able to monitor recovery at home, progress following cardiac s... ... middle of paper ... ...rsing education. Teaching with Technology, 32(3), 189-194. Mackenzie, R., & Sakel, M. (2011, April/May). Teleneurology: Ethics of devolving responsibilities from clinicians to families and/or carers. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 7(2), 490-493. Rothwell, E., Ellington, L., Planalp, S., & Crouch, B. (2011, August 25). Exploring challenges to telehealth communication by specialist in poison information. Qualitative Health Research, 22(1), 67-75. doi:10.1177/1049732311420446 Shore, J. H., Brooks, E., Savin, D. M., Manson, S. M., & Libby, A. M. (2007, June). An economic evaluation of telehealth data collection with rural populations. Psychiatic Services, 58(6), 830-835. Zimmerman, L., & Barnason, S. (2006). Use of a telehealth device to deliver a symptom management intervention to cardiac surgical patients. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 22(1), 32-37.
The economic impact of telehealth is a critical factor to examine when looking at the feasibility of incorporating such technologies into practice. Exploration of economics is also essential as it has been posited that telehealth has the potential to deliver care to individuals that is cost saving in nature (Wade, Karnon, Elshaug, & Hiller, 2010). Furthermore, the estimated expenditure on telehealth services and technology is expected to reach into the billions of dollars (Berger, 2010). However, there are myriad individual elements that may be considered in the broad subject of economics, which complicates determining the economic impact in a parsimonious way (Bergmo, 2009; Wade, et al., 2010).
Moffatt, J. and Eley, D. (2010). The reported benefits of telehealth for rural Australians. Australian Health Review. 34. 276-281.
Prinz, L., Cramer, M. & Englund, A. (2008). Telehealth: A policy analysis for quality, impact on
Bowles, K., Holland, D., & Horowitz, D. (2009). A comparison of in-person home care, home care with telephone contact and home care with telemonitoring for disease management. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, (15), 344-350. doi: 10.1258/jtt.2009.090118
Prinz, L., Cramer, M., & Englund, A. (2008). Telehealth: A policy analysis for quality, impact on patient outcomes, and political feasibility. Nursing outlook, 56(4), 152-158.
Physician engagement - Physicians often resist acceptance of new technology and complain about lack of hands on interaction with patients with Telehealth. According to Gustke et al (2000), fear of malpractice suites is another consideration for physicians. Lack of staff with appropriate skills for telehealth also poses a
With this newer technology Physicians, nurses, and other approved medical staff have the option to monitor their patient’s heart functionality, and fix pacemaker electrical signals to fit patients need from a mobile device, without ever bringing the patient into the Physicians’ office. Cardiac remote patient monitoring uses smart phones, and specific designed (secured) e-mails to deliver information sent from the device implanted within the patient’s heart. This allows medical staff to receive pertinent up-to date- information on the condition of the patient’s pacemaker, and heart. This can help create profound patient care, early critical heart failure, or heart defibrillation detection; while adding to medical staff’s proficiency, and cutting costly emergency room visits with prevention detection ("Remote Monitoring Technology Improves Pacemaker Performance", 2012).
Improving health is in the best interest of everyone, including non-health professionals. Health managers need to be constantly looking for ways to improve access to health care, the quality of the care, and cost containment. Often, the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are cost and location. Lower income individuals just do not have the resources to have optimal healthcare, or cannot take the time away from employment to deal with health issues. One potential solution to help with these problems could be “telehealth.”
The Benefits of Telehealth - Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center. (2016). Nrtrc.org. Retrieved 2 August 2016, from https://www.nrtrc.org/telehealth-topic-20
We live in the era of technology and telehealth is becoming a part of our lives. According to Guido (2014), telehealth Is a removal of time and distance barriers for the delivery of health care services and related health care activities. Internet and other communication technologies are the means for health care professionals to practice across state lines.
After telepsychiatry was implemented into the respondent’s Emergency Department and physicians and nurses were in constant contact with a mental health professional, and became accustomed to its use, they began to get a greater understanding of the issues facing a mental health patient. Subsequently, the use of telepsychiatry decreased over time. The decrease in use of telepsychiatry, decreased the costs incurred by the facilities because many insurances do not cover telepsychiatry.
The research pinpointed the fact that only 21% of patients felt satisfied and almost half of all patients experienced an unsatisfactory service. This dramatic statistics illustrated that there should have been a system failure when those hospitals were implementing telehealth services. Following with this research, another research studying the safety of telehealth and telemedicine, conducted by Taylor P2 in 2005, used the research result above to synthesize the reasons that people were not satisfied with this type of service; the most significant reason was the high cost and requirement of technology. In previous years, telehealth services were mainly about using telephone to establish the communication between doctors and patients.
Telehealth is the provision of Healthcare services through diverse technological methods from a distance (Hill & Miller, 2012). Clinicians can converse with patients through a myriad of options such as videoconferencing and email.
The telehealth industry is constantly changing to meet requirement of health care laws and changes in the population demographic. Teladoc’s ability to develop the latest health technology is critical to success of the company in the long-term. Teladoc was founded in 2002, which gave the company a “first-movers advantage” into the telehealth market domain in the United States. Since 2002, Teladoc Inc. has expanded its portfolio achieving success and improving on product to ensure differentiation, competitive advantage, and consumer base of over 15.4 million members, 1.6 million visits, and a 95 percent member satisfaction rate (Teladoc, 2017). Teladoc has leveraged changes in health care laws and policies to develop health technology at competitive pricing while meets the needs of health care
After reviewing various articles of many data sources, the Department of Veterans Affairs, American Well, and the Medicaid seemed like the invaluable sources of information on the topic of telemedicine for further discussion. The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs explores the advantages of telemedicine and how it improves the health of the veterans. The American Well related websites were a great source to gain insight into the benefits of telemedicine in the commercial sector. The Medicaid and Medicare websites provides insight into how telemedicine gained acceptance and is sometimes the preferred means of healthcare service for those who cannot afford and for the elderly