Telehealth refers to technological methods and medical approaches that are used to improve health care, health education delivery, public health, and health care support (Eren & Webster, 2015). It includes a variety of technologies and techniques that provide virtual medical, health, and education services to individuals and communities in different locations. Telehealth facilitates long-distance interactions between physicians and patients for enhanced education, monitoring, intervention, and provision of quality medical care (Lundy & Janes, 2009).
The four main domains of telepath applications include live video, store-and-forward, mobile health, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) (Maeder, Mars, & Scott, 2014). My organization is a hospital with all the important medical, services such as pediatric, trauma, stroke, and burning centers, and advance cardiovascular programs. The hospital’s Telehealth program is highly useful in providing quality health care to patients. Its benefits include enhancement of access to healthcare, improvement of health outcomes, reduction of healthcare and related costs, mitigation of healthcare providers shortage, and enhancement of clinical education programs (Eren & Webster, 2015).
Patients who live far from the hospital can obtain specialty services easily by avoiding traveling long distances. Examples of services that the hospital provides include stroke, trauma, and intensive care services. The program also allows healthcare providers to expand their practice and provide better medical care because it facilitates early diagnosis, reduced complications, and reduced hospital stays. Specialists work together with local healthcare providers and, as a result, reduce the costs of healthcare (Rouse & Serban, 2014).
The program enhances disease management, reduces complications, and lowers rates of hospitalization. In addition, it reduces expenses related to transport and emergency department visits. Patients who have been hospitalized and monitored via Telehealth applications can stay at home and enjoy the care of friends and family (Smith, Armfield, & Eikelboom, 2012). Studies have shown that patients who recover at home surrounded by family and friends experience faster recovery than patients who stay in hospitals and receive spasmodic visits from family members (Jordan-Marsh, 2010). Providers also benefit from the program because they see distant patients and serve more people. In that regard, they ease the problem of healthcare providers.
Currently, the hospital uses Telehealth to provide medical services to patients in the pediatric, trauma, neurology, and advance cardiovascular programs. There are several opportunities for the implementation of a telehealth program in the organization. Divisions that could improve through such a program include emergency services and preventative medicine centers. In addition, divisions dealing with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and depression can benefit greatly from the program’s implementation.
The organization can also implement the program to address various aspects of primary care that include disease prevention, counseling, patient education, health promotion, diagnosis, treatment of acute and chronic diseases, maternal health care services, family planning, and vaccinations (Jordan-Marsh, 2010). These are some of the areas that the organization has not explored using telehealth. The use of telehealth to provide medical in the aforementioned areas would result in several benefits that include reduction of treatment costs, better handling of chronic illnesses, improved practices regarding preventative medicine, better health outcomes, and increased access to care (Rouse & Serban, 2014).
The primary goal of telehealth is to promote education among people and encourage the provision of self-management care. Telehealth monitoring would promote self-care an improve health outcomes because patients would become actively involved in managing diseases and improving their health (Lundy & Janes, 2009). In addition, it would save money and time, and help healthcare providers detect and treat health problems before they progress to serious stages.
References
Eren, H., & Webster, J. G. (2015). The E-Medicine, E-Health, M-Health, Telemedicine, and Telehealth Handbook. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Jordan-Marsh, M. (2010). Health Technology Literacy: A Transdisciplinary Framework for Consumer-Oriented Practice. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Lundy, K. S., & Janes, S. (2009). Community Health Nursing. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Maeder, A. J., Mars, M., & Scott, R. E. (2014). Global Telehealth 2014. New York, NY: IOS Press.
Rouse, W. B., & Serban, N. (2014). Understanding and Managing the Complexity of Healthcare. New York, NY: MIT Press.
Smith, A. C., Armfield, N. R., & Eikelboom, R. H. (2012). Global Telehealth 2012: Delivering Quality Healthcare Anywhere Through Telehealth. New York, NY: IOS Press.