Telenursing for the Elderly, Research Proposal Example

What is Telenursing/Telehealth?

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, “Telehealth is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to deliver health services, expertise and information over distance. It includes Internet or web-based e-health and video-based applications, and can be delivered real-time (live) or through store-and-forward (record now, view later) mode” (Wheeler, 2002).  Telehealth may use any of the following technologies: videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.

Who Benefits from Telenursing/Telehealth?

Telehealth provides beneficial outcomes to the patient and his/her family, healthcare providers, community organizations, healthcare facility, and the government. First, telehealth improves the way patients and their families gain access to healthcare services. Having access to remote services will decrease hospitalizations and re-admissions to hospital. For instance, “teleconference can be used to attend administrative meetings, leading to substantial savings on travel costs; however, the redistribution of savings between organizations and levels of care is an important and complex issue” (Hu P.J., Chau P.Y., & Sheng O.L., 2000   ).

Implementation of Telenursing/Telehealth

Implementing telenursing can prove difficult because it is an entirely new way of managing healthcare and will not fit into most existing healthcare frameworks. To be done correctly, the processed needs to be thoroughly planned, piloted, governed, and evaluated. Telenursing is often implemented in rural, remote areas where access to healthcare and specialist is limited. According to Jennett P, Jackson A, Healy T, Ho K, Kazanjian A, Woollard R, Haydt & S, Bates, “Telehealth can support the delivery of specialized services in a timely fashion for remote populations, facilitate access to education for clinicians, and save travel costs for patients and professionals” (2003 ). Telehealth also makes it easier for healthcare providers to manage ongoing care for patients with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, etc. (Arnaert & Delesie, 2001).

Costs Involved

The use of telehealth has the potential of reducing healthcare costs. It has been reported that the benefits of telehealth services included: a drop in the rate of hospitalization, ER visits, and total medical costs. This equated to a 55 percent drop in hospitalization, 29 percent reduction in ER visits, and 42 percent drop in medical costs-from 3 million to 1.7 million dollars (Mazzacco, 2010). This data suggests that using telehealth services will significantly reduce healthcare costs.

References

Arnaert, A. &Delesie, L. Telenursing for the elderly. (2001). The case for care via video-telephony. J Telemed Telecare 7, 311-316.

Hu P.J, Chau, P.Y., & Sheng, O.L. (200). Investigation of factors affecting healthcare organization’s adoption of telemedicine technology. Computer Society 3, 23-30.

Jennett, P., Jackson, A., Healy, T., Ho, K., Kazanjian, A., Woollard, R., Haydt, S., & Bates, J. (2003). A study of a rural community’s readiness for telehealth. J Telemed Telecare 9(5), 259-263.

Mazzacco, Michelle. Study confirms benefits of home telehealth (2010). The Educator http://www.hcanys.org/documents/TheEducatorVolume1Edition1.pdf.

Wheeler, T. (2002). Strategies for delivering tele-home care .Telemed Today 6, 37-40.