Technology offers many advantageous ways to aid in the delivery of healthcare today. This includes the remote access of critical health information regarding chronically ill patients. When patients live in remote or rural areas, access to healthcare often presents a challenge with regards to improving health outcomes. Even patients who live in non-rural areas occasionally require remote access to manage their healthcare needs. Telehealth represents a tremendous field with multiple areas focused on providing healthcare across distances.
There are a number of client needs that may be addressed through telehealth applications. The first is long-term management of a disease such as diabetes. Individuals do not need to make an office appointment to discuss the latest glucose lab results. This routine maintenance can be conducted through a telehealth application. Additionally, if a patient is experiencing a recurrence of a complaint, telehealth applications may be useful. This may be a patient who experiences recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). The patient could discuss this via telehealth. If there are no new signs and symptoms, the situation could likely be handled remotely. Additionally, many individuals need the guidance and support of a healthcare provider when attempting to make life changes. The most common of these life changes is improving one’s diet and exercise routine. The patient could have a check-in session with the provider as necessary to discuss the situation.
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For patients who do live remotely from the health care provider, telehealth could also be used to discuss test results. For many of these patients, obtaining diagnostic and routine testing is difficult. If the results are within normal limits, the patient may discuss them over telehealth applications. Occasionally, a provider will want to repeat a test before seeing the patient. This need to repeat a test could be done over telehealth. The patient would have all questions answered and it would prevent the need for an office visit (Kelly, 2002).
Ideally, the telehealth application would resemble some form of video conferencing. It is more personal than a telephone call. Additionally, emails often leave room for ambiguity. The video conferencing system could interface with the patient’s medical records for ease of access for the provider (“Seven percent of U.S. docs video chat with patients,” 2011). Obviously, there may be some resistance to this concept. First, the healthcare provider needs to ensure that the patient has the appropriate hardware and software to conduct a video chat. The patient may also need additional training in how to operate a video chat. This is particularly true for older patients who did not grow up with this technology. Older patients may be offered a training program at the healthcare office. The staff would need to learn the specific software application, particularly with the access to the patient’s records. Providers would also need to adjust to not having a physical patient in front of them to assess (Versel, 2011).
Patient privacy must be protected above all else. This is a sacred aspect of healthcare. Additionally, patients may not be willing to divulge necessary information if they are concerned about its security. Obviously, the system needs to be protected by multiple layers of privacy protections. These include encrypting the data and ensuring proper firewalls are intact. The information may also only be accessed by secure locations. For some providers, this may be a home office. This would require the provider to utilize a computer specifically established for this situation. Other users should not have access to this computer. If the system could not be completely secure, I would not recommend using it. Once patient privacy and trust have been violated, patients are not likely to place their trust in a provider again. This could have long-term detrimental effects for the patient (Monegain, 2011).
- Kelly, D. (2002, June 11). Venturing into telehealth. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from: http://www.asha.org
- Monegain, B. (2011). Lower cost draws healthcare to videoconferencing market. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/
- Seven percent of U.S. docs video chat with patients. (2011). Healthcare IT News. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com
- Versel, P. (2011). Physicians slowly embrace patient videoconferencing. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from: http://www.informationweek.com
