Home Care Option Paper

Telehealth is an innovative approach to health care that is rapidly expanding in all areas of patient care. It has been shown to be cost effective and is rapidly being integrated into everyday practices from clinics, hospitals, court systems, school systems and even the local drug store.

The nurse can utilize home telehealth monitoring to enhance the patient experience by providing medical care, treatments, education and support in the convenience of the family home. McGonigle & Mastrian found, “According to regular surveys conducted by the AARP (1996), more than

The benefits of telehealth consultations are immeasurable; clients are able to access a knowledgeable health care professional and receive a telephone triage/assessment and recommendations. This allows the patient to have immediate access to good health advice and quicker solutions. Telemedicine is one of the many vehicles of telehealth; for example, the cardiologist orders an outpatient Holter Monitor trial to evaluate arrhythmias. The technician calls the patient at the sign of any abnormal rhythm and investigate the activity performed when the reading fluctuation then the reported is communicated to the cardiologist. If warranted, the cardiology staff will contact the patient with instructions schedule an immediate appointment. Telehealth services resources would benefit the client in this next example, an individual’s come in for a sick visit expecting a prescription to be written for their illness; they receive informative instructions because of the nature of the

For this instance, the induction of telehealth would be most beneficial for these resident’s since they get

Case Management Society of America. (2010). Standards of Practice for Case Management. Retrieved from http://www.cmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/memberonly/StandardsOfPractice.pdf

Telehealth has been a large topic of debate in recent years because of the economic, political, and regulatory points of view. In deciding outcomes in these areas, it is the responsibility of all healthcare professions to identify information gaps in order to come to the more rational and beneficial conclusion about telehealth (Grace, 2014). Economically, there are concerns regarding the access and affordability of telehealth equipment. At the same time, telehealth is being adapted in ways to be utilized with technological devices that many individuals already have access to like telephones, cellular phones, and personal computers/laptops. Telehealth can positively impact both clients and providers by increasing access to care and reducing the time and costs associated with traveling for health care (Allen, Aylott, Loyola, Moric, & Saffarek, 2015). As telehealth develops technological devices can be made more affordable and can be covered by insurance policies (Thomas et al., 2014). Many nurses functioning as case managers can help provide the tools and resources individuals require to manage their health.

The program includes case management and care coordination from a nurse or social worker. The program is designed to empower veterans to take an active role and manage their healthcare needs. One of the main goals of the home Telehealth program is to improve clinical outcomes and access to care. These outcomes reduce complications, hospitalizations and clinic or emergency visits. The Care coordination component will assist the veteran in giving them the tools necessary to be successful in caring for themselves. Management of this program

daunting task of caring for a rapidly aging and ever expanding population1—the corollary of which is increased need for

The home videoconference machine commonly used in the VA in 2007 was the American TeleCare LifeView machine (Eden Prairie, MN). Its cost of $11,325 came from a national contract with the VA and hence has no variation. We assumed that it lasts three years. Telephone calls and the LifeView station both use telephone land lines. Based on actual experience, we expected that 52% of individuals eligible for telehealth would have standard (land-line) telephones. No cost was assigned for them because this program does not purchase or repair telephones, and their use would not noticeably shorten their lifetimes. We assumed that the VA clinicians initiated all calls in order to eliminate any cost to the patient. Based on our assumption that transmission costs were part of the fixed overhead assigned to encounters in the SCI clinic, we did not account for their costs separately.

In 2013, Dorota Slawa Mankowska et al, worked on real study for a home care company that present the care for the at patients in their homes by staff members. They developed the mathematical model that aim to optimizing economical service cost and take care about individual qualifications of the staff, time preferences of patients, number of the staff required to this patient and certain time of patient’s drugs. This model has been able to achieve low average waiting times for patients, low traveling cost for caregivers, a fair distribution of inevitable tardiness, and service hundred patients in acceptable runtime.

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

The delivery of health care has always been influenced by technological developments and innovations. This is particularly true in modern health care professionals where they are obsessed with technology and rush to apply them. One of the most recent applications of ICT – Information and computer technology- is telehealth. Telehealth is the use of communication, diagnostic and information technology to provide health care when patients and providers are geographically separated [2], Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store -and-forward imaging, streaming media, terrestrial and wireless communications. Telehealth could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as

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.” Telehealth allows a lower level healthcare practitioner to communicate with a physician or specialists when necessary. Remote rural areas use a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner on location in remote areas.

There are several forms of technology that is used to monitor, assist patients with self-care management, assist physicians with delivering care to their patients, including consultation with specialist, and overcoming barriers with transportation. “60% of the healthcare executives, physicians, and nurses in this inaugural survey said that telemedicine was a high priority for 2015“ (Vockley, 2015, para. 7) Telemedicine

Telenursing uses the technology for the nurses to do follow-up care with patients. The modern approach of follow-up care comforts the patient. Telenursing, the use of technology to allow nursing from a geographic distance, is used in many different settings including hospitals, home care, and other health related facilities. Telenursing is communicated via many different devices of technology. These are many different advantages in using telenursing rather than disadvantages. There are many different organizations involved in developing telenursing.