Medweb Executive Summary

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

In this paper we will discuss an innovation that has been developed in the last 20 years that has influenced the health care industry. That innovation is telemedicine.

Kaiser Permanente s a company that was registered to deliver healthcare services to individuals who are geographically distributed. The organization is dedicated to increasing the medical quality for its members and their immediate environment. The firm has been operating for sixty years, it evolved from programs that were operating in the industrial sector especially shipyards, construction, and steel mill workers in the late 1930s (Kaiser, 2015). In 1945 it was opened for the enrolment of the public who wanted to get their services. The enterprise started with one surgeon and a hospital that had twelve beds in Mojave Desert. The managing director (MD), Sidney Garfield, observed the young people who were involved in different development projects. The MD took a loan to cater for his expenses as he started building the Project of Colorado River Aqueduct since he noticed an opportunity. As the operations begun, most individuals were not in a position of

Grand Hospital incorporated currently uses a proprietary healthcare information system that includes a patient portal, electronic medical records, computerized physician order entry, imaging, laboratory and pharmacy. Grand Hospital’s leadership is investigating creative resolutions to improve current physician service coverage, including ICU, radiology, and behavioral health via the implementation of telemedicine into the current system. (Wagner, Lee, & Glaser, 2013)

Telehealth services refers to the exchange of health information and services through telecommunication services in order to support anyone, at any time, in any location. Telehealth systems allows doctors to be in one place and treat patients in rural or urban areas – such as their homes or any another providers premises. The technology behind such concept is particularly helpful for patients with trouble leaving the house, or that live in remote areas from specialists (Narisi, 2013)

Telehealth is the use of electronic information to support long distance clinical health care, patient education, and public health administration. Telehealth involves video conferences, internet, streaming media, and wireless communication to deliver health related services. It encompasses the preventative, promotive, and curative aspects of health care. This system exchanges health related data and other information between the patient and the health care professional to help with the diagnosis and management of conditions. It allows for conferencing between health care professionals and patients in “real time”, remote patient monitoring (such as the blood pressure monitor feeding results through the system), electronic consultation, transmission of medical data, health advice in emergency cases, and long distance patient education. Telehealth is great for monitoring a client in between doctor appointments in order to assess their progression. This benefits the clients because it reduces the need for hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room, while improving their quality of life.

Telehealth is one of the major types of Health Care Information Systems (HCIS) that enables providers to connect with patients and consulting practitioners across remote areas to support patient and clinician education, diagnosis and treatment, chronic disease management and monitoring, and provider-to-provider interactions (Grube, Kaufman, Clarin, & O’Riordan, 2016, p.43). Telehealth is not a new idea. It initially started in 1950’s and 1960’s when the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute started the closed-circuit TV to monitor patients in rural areas where health care is not easily accessible (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). The development of internet and broadband and

Telemedicine is a vast subject, but as yet there are limited data on the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of most telemedicine applications. As a result, objective information about the benefits and drawbacks of telemedicine is limited. This write up is therefore based mainly on my review opinion referencing the case: “a Telemedicine opportunity of distraction? “of Harvard business. Many potential opportunities of telemedicine including, but not limited to: improved access to information; provision of care not previously deliverable; improved access to services and increasing care delivery; improved professional education; quality control of screening programs; and reduced health-care costs. Although telemedicine clearly has a wide range of potential benefits, it also has some disadvantages. The main ones that can be envisaged are: a breakdown in the relationship between health professional and patient; a breakdown in the relationship between health professionals; issues concerning the quality of health information; and organizational and bureaucratic difficulties. On balance, the benefits of telemedicine are substantial, assuming that more research will reduce or

The Telehealth services will include the use of technology to deliver telemedicine. The budget will fund the hospital with videoconferencing software, computers, webcams, and trained employees to set up and document the process. The equipment will allow physicians or patients to consult virtually with other physicians and specialists. Instead of missing a day of work or school and commuting hours for an appointment with a specialist, patients will be able to visit their local hospital and consult with the specialist via technology. Consultations, examinations, and monitoring are services that can easily be provided through

Technology has had a role in healthcare for some time, but only recently has it matured to a point where it can support operational, business and clinical functions of healthcare organizations. In the past, many hospitals used technology for specialized departments and unique roles, but the concept of a complete electronic health record system did not exist until the early 2000’s. The American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT) Supplement to the AHA Annual Survey stated that in 2008 only 9.4% of hospitals had a basic electronic health record (EHR) system (HealthIT EHR, 2014). They defined a basic EHR as having electronic clinical information that includes results and the ability to enter and view clinical notes. Without the ability for healthcare organizations to capture clinical information electronically, an online patient engagement solution cannot

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

TTechnology trends. Looking at the current marketing trends, healthcare is advancing day-by-day. Therefore, it is important for healthcare organizations to incorporate certain technologies, such as telemedicine that can provide effective healthcare services to even its physically distant patients, which will serve as a useful asset to a rural hospital like PMH (Campbell, 2001). Another great benefit of this technology will be how it can help in overcoming the physician shortage situation at PMH, by providing real time assistance to the patients (Campbell, 2001). Additionally, with the increasing information technologies, another trend that has strongly gained momentum, especially after passing of the legislative act called the Health Information Technology for Economics and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), according to which various health information technologies (HITs) are enforced, liked EMR (Dephillips III, 2007).

There is an increasing need within the U.S. for quality health care to be provided to individuals who have limited access whether it is due to a rural environment, disabilities, or in the field of battle. Telemedicine is literally medicine provided at a distance. Telehealth is able to alleviate some of the effects of a growing shortage of professionals such as primary care physicians. In this type of health care delivery, the dynamics between the patient and the entire health care system changes. Telemedicine meets the increasing demands of patients to have greater access, or responsiveness, from a health care provider. It also meets the needs of the provider who is very interested in time-saving, safety-enhancing assistance in their daily practice. Employers and health plans are also very interested in telemedicine as a means of improving compliance with treatment plans and care management initiatives (Hodgkins, 2008). The use of email also allows the patient to have increased access to their health care providers. Instead of calling their health care provider’s office, patients are now able to email their non-emergent health care questions to their provider. Conversely, health care providers are able to email patients reminders for appointments or wellness tips.

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

One thing that did catch my eye is that in the author’s opinion, “communication between cancer specialists of tertiary care medical facilities and doctors at the primary and secondary hospitals is not easy to establish due to geographical and institutional problems” shows that they are not confident on the technological development that the telemedicine system is capable of bring to the community. The reason is because there are some applications (to be used in the smart devices) that being developed which doctors in various geographical locations can use to discuss the condition or illness of the patient and come to a conclusion of the best fit treatment plan.