Telehealth

Benefits of Telehealth

Telehealth provides a way for patients to maintain contact with healthcare providers and results in increased patient satisfaction, disease control, and outcomes. Along with the nationwide implementation of electronic health records, telehealth will become an integral part of healthcare in this country.

In a study done in the United Kingdom, patient mortality was reduced by 45% when telehealth resources were implemented (Lindeman, 2012). Patients were also found to cope with side effects of treatment better and have less negative behaviors when involved in disease-based support groups (Wicks et al., 2010).

Resistance to new technologies. As with anything new, implementation can meet resistance among patients as well as caregivers. Some of the most frequent complaints when discussing telehealth are the invasion of privacy and the inability of older patients to properly navigate new equipment (Gee et al., 2012). Rural areas, with a lack of infrastructure, also present obstacles to the implementation of this new technology (Paget, Jones, Davies, Evered, & Lewis (2010). However, in the pilot study done by Paget et al. (2010) hospital admissions were reduced for most of the patients involved in using home telehealth for monitoring and management.

Diminishing resistance to change. A thorough understanding on the part of the provider can help increase the acceptance of new technologies in healthcare informatics. Through the DIKW framework, the nurse informaticist can develop the tools and methods to increase patient education, acceptance, and collaboration (Gee et al., 2012). When working within a healthcare system, it is crucial for nurses to emphasize the bottom-line of increased efficiency and cost-saving measures when implementing a telehealth system (Kimmel, 2012). The benefits of telehealth will be realized by all parties only when stakeholders are accepting and informed.

References

Gee, P., Greenwood, D., Kim, K., Perez, S., Staggers, N., & DeVon, H. (2012). Exploration of the e-patient phenomenon in nursing informatics. Nursing Outlook, 60, E9-E16. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2011.11.005

Kimmel, K. (2012, May). Shifting gears: guiding your facility to knowledge-driven nursing. Nursing Management, 21-23. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000413651.80589.18

Lindeman, D. (2012). Mounting evidence of the benefits of telehealth: UK study shows 45% reduction in mortality rates. The Journal of Community Informatics, 8(1).

Paget, T., Jones, C., Davies, M., Evered, C., & Lewis, C. (2010). Using home telehealth to empower patients to monitor and manage long term conditions. Nursing Times, 106(45), 17-19.

Wicks, P., Massagli, M., Frost, J., Brownstein, C., Okun, S., Vaughan, T., & ... Heywood, J. (2010). Sharing health data for better outcomes on PatientsLikeMe. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 12(2), e19. Retrieved from doi:10.2196/jmir.1549