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.
Cardiac monitoring has been available since the early 1960s (Henriques-Forsythe, Ivonye, Jamched, Kamuguisha, Olejeme & Onwuanyi, 2009). George, Walsh-Irwin, Queen, Vander Heuvel, Hawkins, & Roberts (2015) explain, “Remote telemetry monitoring is the monitoring of cardiac rhythms of acute care inpatients from a central locate by personnel who are not directly involved with patient care” (p. 11). Researchers and authors published a multitude of articles, best practices, and standards for hospital monitoring (Drew, 2004, Funk, 2010). A basic internet query reveals injuries and deaths related to remote telemetry monitoring. Guidelines, best practices, and research provide the best evidence in the delivery of safe quality care
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
Prinz, L., Cramer, M. & Englund, A. (2008). Telehealth: A policy analysis for quality, impact on
Shore, J. H., Savin, D., Novins, D., & Manson, S. M. (2006). Cultural aspects of telepsychiatry. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 12, 116–121.
The Benefits of Telehealth - Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center. (2016). Nrtrc.org. Retrieved 2 August 2016, from https://www.nrtrc.org/telehealth-topic-20
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.
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.”
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.
Telemedicine is a new comer to the field of medicine and it is the treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology. Telemedicine is carried out in a variety of ways whether it is by smart phone, wireless tools or other forms of telecommunications. Examples of telemedicine include: 1) transmission of medical images 2) care services at the home of the patient 3) Diagnosis at distance 4) education and training of patients. The diversity of practices in what is known as telemedicine raises many questions and one of those questions, which is extremely important, relate to the safety of the practice and the risks involved.
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).
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.
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
Sevean, P., Dampier, S., Spadoni, M., Strickland, S., Pilatzke, S., (2008). Patients and families experiences with video telehelath in rural/remote communities in northern canada. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18. 2573-2579.
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.
Introduction Telehealth or telemedicine refers to the delivery of health services by telecommunication technologies, such as the telephone, videophone, and computer, by healthcare professionals.1 Information and communication technologies are used for the exchange of information in order to diagnose, treat, prevent diseases and injuries, research and education of the healthcare providers.2. Telemedicine is the use of electronic communications and information technologies to provide clinical services when both the patient and healthcare providers are at different locations.3 A similar term Telehealth, comprises a broader application of technologies to distance education, consumer outreach, and other applications.3 There are three primary types