Telemedicine : Is It Really Altering The Way Us Americans Coexist With The Healthcare System?

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.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology has impacted the health care delivery system. Health care technology is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate in the United States, and globally. Patients and providers are witnessing these changes through the use of telehealth, and telemedicine applications. Telehealth, and telemedicine are often used interchangeably, however there is a difference between the two applications. Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver health care, health information, or health education at a distance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).

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

Many of these barriers exist from lack of essentially knowing the benefits of what the incorporation of telehealth can offer within the aspect of this type of community. At times, there has been a great interest in telehealth surrounding its potential to reduce health care costs along with the improvement of patient outcomes, but at times there has been no known scientific evidence base underpinning it (McLean, Sheikh, Cresswell, Nurmmatov, Mukherjee, Hemmi & Pagilari, 2013).

In some specialties, particularly in mental health and ICU care, telemedicine delivers a superior product, with greater outcomes and patient satisfaction. Consumers want telemedicine. The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family and their community. Using telemedicine technologies reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient.

In the face of the limits of traditional support, it is necessary not only to redesign an organization, but to a paradigm shift that allows the socio-health performance to be efficiently and sustainably distributed to the widest possible audience. Digital technologies applied to healthcare and healthcare systems can increase their efficiency, improve their quality of life and give innovative impetus to healthcare markets. Telemedicine services can therefore be assimilated to any diagnostic / therapeutic health service. However, telemedicine performance does not replace traditional healthcare performance in the personal-patient relationship, but integrates it to improve its effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness.

I have no personal experience with telehealth, but I have witness a few promotional videos over the recent years. As technology continues to grow within the healthcare system, it will allow us to provide better care whether we are face-to-face or miles apart. Telehealth is can be beneficial to not only the healthcare workers but always the patient. Telehealth allows the healthcare system to ensure continuity of care and also evaluate patient compliance to the plan of care. Since technology is so prominent in todays society, telehealth allows the patients to have quick and easy way to contact their provider via email, blog, or videochat.

Telemedicine seeks to improve a patient’s health by permitting a two-way communication between the patient, and the physician or practitioner at the distant site.

Telehealth refers to healthcare that does not necessarily involve any form of in person clinical services. Telemedicine is the use of medical information substituted from one place to another through several electronic communications to improve the health status of patients. Telehealth and telemedicine include several services that include primary care, specialist consultations, imaging services, distance patient monitoring, and medical education. In New York, there has been an increase in the use of telehealth especially after the implementation of the telehealth parity law. The main benefits of telehealth on the patient include improvement of convenience through countering geographical barriers, enhanced access especially to people in the rural areas and reduction in time wasted traveling particularly when queuing in

Strides are being made more people are able to access the sufficient healthcare. Since specialized care is limited in rural areas it is hard to come by without traveling at the patients’ expense. Telemedicine was valued at $15.6 billion in 2014; this price is expected to increase 4.8% by 2019 (Iafolla, 2015). With an increase like this more rural areas will be able to access the care needed such as clinical services, provider training, specialized care, and medical education. Telehealth plays a crucial role with providers and patients at a distance. Since only 10% of physicians practice in these areas, time could be freed for those emergency cases and productivity can increase (Iafolla, 2015). The ability to provide care for those who cannot reach a hospital could help save a life.

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

For example, the CMS and National Coordinator of Health IT defined telehealth as “the use of telecommunications and IT to provide access to diagnosis, health assessment, information, and patient care (Desjardins, 2014).” However, The Health Resources and Services Administration defined it as “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technology to support long-distance health (Desjardins, 2014).” Telemedicine in many ways has endless possibilities from the technology used to provide care and how providers can provide patient care from, preventive care of infants to the elderly, post-operative care, to chronic disease management. However, the language differences and the wide range of care can be challenging for provider and insurance to bill, as these care codes have not created or defined. These barriers have a direct relationship to lack of data from pilot programs, that inversely relate to the lack of funding. One report noted, that “while many definitions are similar, there are nuanced differences that reflect each organization’s legislative intent and the population they serve, “ and “these definitions affect how telemedicine has been or is being applied across the healthcare landscape” and concluded that “a common nomenclature for defining telemedicine may benefit efforts to advance the use of this technology to address the changing nature of healthcare and new demands for services expected as a result of health reform (Desjardins,

Telemedicine is an emerging technology that with increasing internet speeds and the widespread usage of satellite broadband will serve our population at a reduced cost. Telemedicine that is already in use in the Golden Triangle will allow Physicians to see their patients, allow nurses to perform assessments, and medications to be prescribed. Telemedicine will also allow Doctors to assist the APRN with difficult diagnoses and create advanced treatment plans. While using this technology in these remote clinics would improve our underserved population access it does nothing to make them use the clinics.

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

Advantages: With Telehealth, people are able to have consultation with their health care provider at home/office. This is convenience for those patients with physical disability or elderlies. This also makes their family member’s life easier as they do not need to take an off in order to bring the patient to hospital. It is cheaper to have consultation with doctors through Telehealth compare to visit the doctor personally. This would also reduce travel expenses. Telehealth helps to save time as patients do not need to spent time on traveling and waiting for their turn to have consultation.