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Telemedicine benefits essay
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Telemedicine: The Future in Health Care
Topic Question: Is telemedicine vital for health care delivery?
The idea of telemedicine is not new. In fact, when we get sick we often pick up the phone and discuss our conditions and possible treatments with our health care providers through the telephone. When there is an accident we dial 911 to obtain emergency assistance. These are just a few simple examples of applications of telemedicine. With advancements in technology, the new era of telemedicine will allow the patients and doctors to actually communicate both verbally as before but also visually. Telemedicine is broadly defined as "the use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participants".5 This technology has allowed people in underprivileged communities, rural areas, and geographically isolated locations to receive quality health care. However, the application of telemedicine is not limited to these regions. This tool will allow schools, hospitals, and other health care arenas to receive specialty care when needed.
Even though telemedicine is a very powerful tool, many barriers must be broken in order for this technology to succeed. There are many obstacles and the main one is the resistance from physicians. Many health care providers are reluctant to learn how to use new technologies; especially the older doctors who...
...ward understanding the cost benefit of telemedicine applications. Hospital Topics: Research and Perspectives on Healthcare
The author’s sources support the conclusion that innovations in health technology will help improve patient care. Using not only Dr. Martin but others who are being trained in the field such as Sean Hayes, a Baylor MB/Healthcare/MSIS candidate, who in the article spoke of how a physician can be patched in by video and do a distance consult, which he saw as cost sharing in rural areas at may not be able to afford
[20]Charles BL. (2000) Telemedicine can lower costs and improve access. Healthcare Financial Management. 54(4): 66.
Telemedicine hold a great promise in health information technology, it not only promises to improve health care delivery but it also aids in serving the most vulnerable of patients.
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.
The purpose of telemedicine is to remove distance as a barrier to health care. While telehealth is an accepted resource to bridge the gap between local and global health care, integrating telehealth into existing health infrastructures presents a challenge for both governments and policy makers (HRSA, 2011). Today there are policy barriers that prevent the expansion of telehealth, including reimbursement issues raised by Medicare and private payers, state licensure, and liability and privacy concerns.
Among the main aims of health care reform and improvement is expanding healthcare access to different populations, which have been subjects to underserving for a long period. These include the poor, the previously uncovered, rural societies, and the minorities, to mention just a few. Great challenges definitely lie ahead, since several individuals start seeking access to the primary healthcare clinicians (Arnaert & Delesie, 2001). Telenursing assures to be a crucial tool to meet such needs. It refers to making use of the telehealth technology in conducting nursing practice and delivering nursing care. Because of the quick telemedicine technology adoption within the healthcare institutions, telenursing emerges as a fresh tool that provokes discussions
Telehealth definition according to our textbook by Hebda, T., & Czar, P., 2013 is the use of telecommunications technologies and electronic information to exchange healthcare information and to provide and support services such as long-distance clinical healthcare to clients. It provides health care to patients that may not be able to have access to care. Telehealth requires a patient to have electronic tools to facilitate this type of service. Electronic tools can be a telephone, computer, or a video camera. The patient is able to call or enable video conferencing to have access to their health care provider. Telehealth allows the patient to have access to preventative care and education on their disease process and how to manage it at home.
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.
Telehealth allows a lower-level healthcare practitioner to communicate with a physician or specialist when necessary. Remote rural areas use a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner on location in remote areas. When procedures call for a physician, an internet or satellite link provides a teleconference with a physician who can prescribe appropriate treatment (Gangon, Duplantie, Fortin & Landry 2006). This could be implemented in lower income urban areas, allowing free clinics to lower costs, and require fewer physicians. Programs that increase the level of healthcare available to school children could be increased.
During the progression of a stroke, nervous tissue is lost rapidly and permanently. This suggests that for stroke diagnosis and treatment, time is of the essence (Saver, 2006). Fortunately, telemedicine for stroke patients can help specialists to evaluate a patient immediately, while emergency assistance is on its way, significantly decreasing the likelihood of serious and life-threating effects. Telemedicine has been defined as the use of the transference of medical information remotely from one site to another using various electronic communication devices such as smart phones, web cams, robotic telepresence, and email (American Telemedicine Association, 2012). One common model for telemedicine is known as Hub and Spoke.
Moreover, specialist and other health care professionals are also able to expand their reach through telemedicine and telehealth. As a result, it can be said that both telehealth and telemedicine have a unique capacity that increases access to services for millions of people and professionals around the world. These advanced technological creations certainly serve their purposes, as they enhance social justice by giving individuals and populations a fair and equal opportunity to receive the best level of care to which everyone is entitled to. Furthermore, due to the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) over the past decade, many health care institutions were able to provide seamless care and improve the speed and the quality of care given to the members of the public (Weinfeld, Davidson, and Mohan 2012). Weinfeld, Davidson, and Mohan (2012) expressed that there have been many improvements since EHRs were first introduced, especially among disadvantaged health care practices.
Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another by using electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. This allows providers to be able to care for patients or give advice to other medical providers in a particular medical subspecialty or healthcare specialization where the recipient of that service is located at a different geographic location from that of the provider. Typically, such services originate from health care systems, hospitals or large medical group practices that employ a diverse collection of expert and highly experienced medical and healthcare specialists. The specialists communicate with patients and/or providers at physically separate locations using a variety of
Mandl, Kenneth, MD., Kohane, Isaac, MD., Brandt, Allan, MD. (1998). “Electronic Patient – Physician Communication: Problems and Promise”. Annals of Internal Medicine, 129, 495 – 500.
Computer technology allows for nurses to facilitate care at a distance and although still in its transitioning phases, telehealth and telenursing will hopefully rectify the problem of the nation’s nursing shortage. The term ‘telenursing’ is not completely new. What was once the more popular ‘advice nurse’ or phone ‘triage nurse’, is now the new and improved telenurse. Telenursing allows for a nurse have real-time 2-way interaction with the patient. How effective can a nurse be if she cannot touch and/or feel her patient? Stokowski (2008) paints this picture: “Imagine if you had to assess your patients with your eyes closed and without using your hands and you will get an idea of the difficulty that telehealth nurses must overcome with every patient encounter”. One must keep in mind that the scope of practice for the telenurses is the same as the bedside nurse. The telenurses however, must heavily rely on knowledge, good judgment, evidence based practice, and information received from the patient to provide quality care; therefore, a telenurses requires continuous education to