Benefits of the Telehealth Project-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Benefits of the Telehealth Project. Answer: Introduction Telehealth project has been introduced for improving the access to the healthcare in public hospitals of the rural areas (Rutledge et al., 2014). The main aim of this project is to improve the delivery of healthcare, health services and improve the patient outcomes across the state. Current funding is being planned to set up urgent healthcare centres in the rural regions and to set up emergency departments at the nearest hospitals via video conferencing. This report develops a vision document for the Telehealth project. It discusses about the problems for which this project is being planned. This report also describes the capabilities as well as benefits of the Telehealth project. Problem Healthcare professionals face difficulty in providing quality healthcare services to the patients due to long distance issues. They face difficulty in communicating for delivering health or other related processes such as professional advice and education. There are several issues in case of face-to-face methods of providing education, professional advice and healthcare services. Most of the physicians and healthcare professionals practice in the urban regions. There is lack of healthcare facilities in the rural regions (Paliadelis et al., 2012). Due to long distance, healthcare professionals face difficulty in delivering timely as well as appropriate healthcare services to the patients in the rural regions. They also face difficulty in providing educational support. Healthcare professionals are unable to spend sufficient time with the patients due to several barriers like time, distance and cost. Rural patients do not get the facility of emergency healthcare services in a timely man ner (Weinhold Gurtner, 2014). Response time by the emergency healthcare professionals and the time taken in transportation are comparatively more than in the urban regions. These difficulties have led to impair outcomes such as increased emotional and physical stress of the patients. Capabilities The main capabilities of Telehealth will be video conferencing, mobile health, monitoring patient from remote location and storing of health related data. Telehealth project will promote the use of information and communication technologies for remote access of healthcare services. This will enable the physicians and healthcare professionals to manage health related data as well as the healthcare of the patients from a distant location (Nagel, Pomerleau Penner, 2013). Telehealth will utilize various technologies for delivering virtual health, education and medical services. Telehealth services will include dentistry, counselling, professional and consumer education, physical therapy, disease monitoring and disaster management. The main capabilities of the Telehealth project are discussed below. Video conferencing: Telehealth service will enable the healthcare professionals to have a two-way live interaction with the patients by utilizing telecommunications technology. Video conferencing will provide real time service that will act as the substitute for an in-person healthcare professional (Graves, 2012). Live video conferencing will facilitate the healthcare professionals to carry out diagnostic as well as treatment services. Storing and forwarding: This project will promote the use of ICT for transmitting health records and details such as x-rays and pre-recorded video in a secure manner to the physicians. This service will provide access to health records and data after collecting and storing it. Patient monitoring: Telehealth services will help to collect health data from a location and transfer the record to another location where the physician is present. Healthcare professionals will be able to monitor the patients in the rural regions from a remote location (De San Miguel, Smith Lewin, 2013). This service will allow tracking the healthcare related data of the patients via secure electronic and communication technologies. Mobile health: Telehealth project will include the use of mobile devices such as tablets and cell phones that can be utilized for promoting healthy behaviour in the rural regions across the state (Istepanian, Laxminarayan Pattichis, 2014). Healthcare apps will enable the physicians to monitor the patients in real time and in an accurate manner from any location. Benefits Telehealth project will be able to improve the access to the quality healthcare in the public hospitals present in rural regions across the state. It will be able to improve the communication process by allowing the physicians to get in contact with the patients and monitor the health of the patients in a fast manner via digital telecommunication devices. It will help to resolve the issue of long distance and deliver high quality education and health services. The Telehealth services will provide a real time, cost effective and convenient service to the patients and the healthcare professionals. Telehealth will be able to improve the patient outcomes and will improve the delivery of health care services. The benefits of Telehealth are discussed below. Improved access: Telehealth will enable the health professionals to access health record of the patients from any location without any difficulty. The video conferencing facility will be able to expand their reach and serve to patients from a remote location. Telehealth solutions will be able to improve the quality of health services. Improved access to care will have a positive impact on patient satisfaction as well as retention. Cost efficiencies: Telehealth will provide cost effective solutions. Telehealth solutions such as video conferencing will help to reduce the travel time and manage chronic diseases in a better manner (Henderson et al., 2013). This will increase the cost efficiencies of the healthcare facilities. Improved quality: Video conferencing that are provided over telecommunication services will be able to improve the service quality. Telehealth will be able to deliver superior products and services with greater patient outcomes. It will also be able to improve the clinical workflow. Information will be stored in an organized manner and this will enable the healthcare professionals to improve the medical decision making process. Conclusion This report concludes that the Telehealth project will be beneficial for the healthcare professionals as well as the patients in the rural regions. Video conferencing facility will be able to overcome the issue of long distance between the patients and the physicians, and make the process of communication efficient. It can be clearly seen from the above discussion that Telehealth will be able to improve the patient outcomes and the quality of health and other related services. References De San Miguel, K., Smith, J., Lewin, G. (2013). Telehealth remote monitoring for community-dwelling older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Telemedicine and e-Health,19(9), 652-657. Graves, B. A. (2012). Telehealth for communities: toward eliminating rural health disparities.Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care,10(1), 4-6. Henderson, C., Knapp, M., Fernndez, J. L., Beecham, J., Hirani, S. P., Cartwright, M., ... Doll, H. (2013). Cost effectiveness of telehealth for patients with long term conditions (Whole Systems Demonstrator telehealth questionnaire study): nested economic evaluation in a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial.Bmj,346, f1035. Istepanian, R., Laxminarayan, S., Pattichis, C. S. (2014).M-health. John Wiley Sons. Nagel, D. A., Pomerleau, S. G., Penner, J. L. (2013). Knowing, Caring, and Telehealth Technology: Going the Distance in Nursing Practice.Journal of Holistic Nursing,31(2), 104-112. Paliadelis, P. S., Parmenter, G., Parker, V., Giles, M., Higgins, I. (2012). The challenges confronting clinicians in rural acute care settings: a participatory research project.Rural Remote Health,12(2), 1-12. Rutledge, C. M., Haney, T., Bordelon, M., Renaud, M., Fowler, C. (2014). Telehealth: preparing advanced practice nurses to address healthcare needs in rural and underserved populations.International journal of nursing education scholarship,11(1), 1-9. Weinhold, I., Gurtner, S. (2014). Understanding shortages of sufficient health care in rural areas.Health Policy,118(2), 201-214.