Telehealth Compliance Report

There are real benefits for both the patient and the clinician. The individual patient has more control and understanding of their long term health condition, and the clinicians utilising telehealth as part of a care pathway can ensure that they are proactively involved in the ongoing wellbeing of their patient, managing timely interventions and helping to improve their patient's quality of life.

In the United States, a renewed interest occurred in telehealth in the 1990s according to McGonigle and Mastrian because of escalating costs, the need for greater access for all

It excludes the option of face-to-face communication during examinations. Finally, telehealth focuses on educational and research purposes involving all types of caregivers with telecommunication between patient and health professionals. Health care delivery in its use of information, records, communication, and will continue to grow with the Internet. The rapid expansion of information technology into daily life and business has healthcare delivery begin to adopt and optimize the use of technology.

Employers are beginning to incorporate telemedicine into the benefits package for their employees. Recognizing e-visits are beneficial to the employer, because the employee will not need as much time away from work to have non-emergent health conditions treated. In addition, the service is a cost savings to both the employer and employee. There are some employer groups covering these services at 100 percent for their employees’. E-visits are cheaper than clinic, and office visits.

Traditionally, continuity of care was characterized by the patient’s long-term relationship with their primary physician who directed all the patient’s medical care. Here is a paradigm shift in today’s technological advancements to support continuity of medical care. The perspective of continuity of care revolves around a multidisciplinary care team and the utilization of technology to support the delivery of the care.

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.

Telehealth is an all inclusive, systematic approach application of care and case management. The program personalizes the delivery of health care services using health informatics, disease management and health technologies. Telehealth facilitates access to care and improves the health of designated individuals and populations.

“Telehealth changes the location of care by connecting patients and clinicians virtually, in place of the usual face-to-face contact.” (Darkins 2012).

Nurses may use different tools, such as computers, and teleconferences by telephone or video to deliver services to their patients. Healthcare reform’s primary goal is to expand health care access to the different populations that have been underserved. These populations include the poor, minorities, and rural communities. With so many challenges that lie ahead as more people seek to access primary care clinicians, telenursing presents itself as an important tool in meeting these needs. Therefore, it is important to know one’s role as a

Telehealth Is Not Cost-Effective - Lack of definitive proof of profitability to those directly responsible for the financial health of organizations is the major stumbling block to widespread adoption of telehealth. The entities resisting the adoption of telehealth the most seems to be physicians, hospital administrators and healthcare payers (Erickson PhD, et al., 2015). Providers simply will not provide telehealth services if they are not adequately reimbursed by payers or allowed by regulators.

Through videoconferencing, Telehealth are able to give immediate diagnosis for a patient who needs urgent care (Saqui et al., 2011). A lot of effort is involve before a patient could meet with his or her doctor such as making an appointment, sorting his or her schedule and so on and so forth. By the time the person with health concern meets with his or her doctor the illness might already aggravated; consequently, the health care system through Telehealth provides a quicker and more efficient way on determining the type and seriousness of the patients and illness without leaving the comfort of their homes. By contacting Telehealth as soon as a person notices some irregularities in the person’s normal body functions that indicates that he may or may not be ill, enable that person who called to act immediately preventing the illness from advancing any further or on the other hand be reassured that there’s nothing to worry about. Furthermore, Telehealth also made the monitoring on recovering patients at their homes faster, the registered nurse in-charge of monitoring the patient can guide the patient in his recovery process through a streaming media. Any concerns that may arise in the recovery process can be solved a lot quicker, the patient can leave a message or phoned and the health care provider will respond to it as soon as possible stating the fact that Telehealth service is available 24 hours a day.

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

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