The evolving technology has led to various improvements in service delivery in almost every sector. Healthcare is one such sector that benefitted from telecommunications. Telehealth medical services provider is a growing phenomenon and attracts debates on the benefits, advantages, and disadvantages. Healthcare experts, researchers, and users have their views on telehealth. This paper identifies some benefits of telehealth medicine and offers a detailed explanation of the various assessment mechanisms to the services provided. It will reveal the need to either invest more in the same services or offer them to different healthcare patients who need them. Though the concept is improving in every part of the country, various states have their varied laws on managing and using such information. That also explains why there is a slow conception of telemedicine in the current time.
The development of the internet and technology led to improvements in healthcare services. The use of the same technology to collect data, store the information and transmit for diagnosis is telemedicine. According to Serper and Volk (2018), its use grew tremendously in recent years and led to various medical field implications. However, some concerns about the service in some quotas are due to their barriers (Scott, Karem, Shifflett, Vegi, Ravi, & Brooks, 2018). This research outlined the advantages and disadvantages of telehealth, assessment of the service, its limits, and variations I need and the perspective of a patient.
One advantage of telehealth can do away with the strenuous travelling times to hospitals and places of treatment. Through telemedicine, a client who would have taken hours to the hospital would be easily treated at the comfort of their houses and homes. Such an advantage comes with connecting from far using various internet and video conferencing abilities (Gajarawala, & Pelkowski, 2021). The other benefit is the safe storage of information. Electronic systems have database management systems incorporated into them to allow proper data guard at any given time. The basic mechanical handling of information by human users is sometimes dangerous and may lead to losses. The disadvantages are the limited engagement between the sick and the doctor. According to Bull, Dewar, Malvey, and Szalma (2016), patients who visit hospitals have time for examination, physical touch with the medical officers, and a detailed explanation of what is happening. Besides, laws and regulations about telehealth differ from one region to another. With the different rules, medical practitioners moving from state to stake will have to go through another learning series to understand how to approach the system for treatment.
To assess the performance of telehealth, I need to observe the performance metrics. These include excellent delivery of patient information and the diagnosis of the sick. Such diagnosis determines the likelihood of the client response to the medicine given. Additionally, more patients choosing the teleservices will be an indication of the success of the system. Illustrations by Kichloo, Albosta, Dettloff, Wani, El-Amir, Singh, Aljadah, Chakinala, Kanugula, Solanki, and Chugh (2020) posit that the limitations include the many regulations from various countries, confusion of medical officers, lacking specific identifiers to patients and reduced physical examinations of the sick.
Providers have their needs to visit patients or have them visit hospitals. This is not following the client’s perspective. Mostly, doctors love seeing the client engage their body language, examine them physically, and explore several indicators of their problems. The client perspective is on overcoming the challenges of treatment and wish to have a comprehensive treatment, irrespective of the method used. These are different approaches but have one result in the end; the results. It is therefore wise that both the medical experts and patients explore these differences to reach a solution.
To summarize, telehealth medicine led to increased provision of services at home, aided by advanced telecommunication services. It has advantages like reduced time to travel, and disadvantages like lacking physical contact. The limitations include the confusion due to several state laws. The assessment can be done by exploring the various success stories and increased client interest in the service. The patient and doctors have different perspectives on this, with the client focusing on the best survival possible and trusting the medical practitioners. The nurses themselves do not wish to make any errors and would require full-service provision for success.
References
Bull, T. P., Dewar, A. R., Malvey, D. M., & Szalma, J. L. (2016). Considerations for the telehealth systems of tomorrow: An analysis of student perceptions of telehealth technologies. JMIR Medical Education, 2(2), e11.
Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal For Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221.
Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, R. C., Kanugula, A. K., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the future: a narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family medicine and community health, 8(3), e000530.
Scott Kruse, C., Karem, P., Shifflett, K., Vegi, L., Ravi, K., & Brooks, M. (2018). Evaluating barriers to adopting telemedicine worldwide: A systematic review. Journal Of Telemedicine and Telecare, 24(1), 4–12.
Serper, M., & Volk, M. L. (2018). Current and future applications of telemedicine to optimize the delivery of care in chronic liver disease. Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology.
Journal of the American Gastroenterological Association, 16(2), 157–161.e8. Web.