Feasibility of Telehealth Essay

Health is a vital aspect of life, which is why it is important to have an access to different wellness economic aid work. The instaurations population is rising radically every year thus, the demand for quality health c are work in addition increases. With the application of modern engineering science the health system has been able to accommodate this demand in many countries through the implementation of Telehealth. In Canada, accessibility and distribution of health care services is influenced by aspects like large landmass, population concentration and economy and (Sevean, et. al., 2008). The feasibility of Telehealth as an instrument for de fitring health care services in Canada result be discussed in this paper, focusing on four key themes service to verdant areas, cost effectiveness, responsiveness and ease of access that will be tackled consecutively. The first carve up after the introduction aims to give an overview on what and how Telehealth works in Canada. Centr al to the arguments presented in this paper is the pros of using Telehealth by means of telecommunication technologies as a substitute to the actual patient role-to-health care provider interaction.Telehealth is defined by Health Canada (2000) as the application of telecommunications and information technology to the delivery of health care and health-related services and information over large and small distances. It is basically divided into two distinct parts the technology being used and the persons (patient or health care provider) (Thede, 2001, para. 2). Telehealth fit to Prinz, Cramer, and Englund uses four modes of telecommunication voice-only or telephone, video images or exchange of information through digital pictures, and virtual contract or video conferencing (Background section, para. 4). include in the Telehealth Ontario service is a contact number that you can Canadians can call 24 hours a day seven days a week. In consulting the health care provider through phone, once on the line, the health care provider, usually registered nurse, will asks the person on the other line to mention his or her health concern, the nurse will then evaluate the persons condition and will help him or her to determine the best pick visible(prenominal) for him or her whether to go see a doctor, admit himself or herself in an emergency room, the nurse can also advise self-care (Ontario Ministry of Health and semipermanent Care, 2009).Telehealth has already been incorporated in almost every medical field like Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Cardiology, Radiology and Oncology providing accuracy and more services to people. Telehealth aims to elevate the serviceability of health system by providing access for people who has a health concern anytime of any day anywhere. Telehealth provides better health service for people living in the rural areas. Canada has a large landmass with bodies of water surrounding it. The population is not equally distributed, most Canadians live i n urban areas, and some small communities are located at rural areas and the Aboriginals mostly live in small isolated areas. In the study they conducted in 2008, Sevean, Dampier, Spadoni, Strickland and, Pilatzke found out that Canadians who live in smaller isolated community do not have an access to a quality health care because even though Canada has an refined health services most of these health services centered on the urban areas and that is also why most health care professionals favor running(a) on urban areas resulting to a shortage of health care professionals in the rural areas.In addition, specific services might only be available to large hospitals that are mostly located on big cities, forcing people in isolated communities to travel miles by land, water or air to suit the medical help they need. Most road conditions in the rural areas are undeveloped increasing their inconvenience. Also, weather condition is also a great friendliness in accessing health care, ai r and sea travel is usually cancelled during storms most roads are also inaccessible when there is a starchy downpour of snow. Unavailability of help during emergencies results in fatality especially in the northern Aboriginal communities (Sevean et. al, 2008). By improving the access of health care for rural access it also decreases the mortality rate. Telehealth is designed to reduce the cost associated with the delivery of health care without compromising on the quality. Treatments and medications can be costly depending on the type and intervals plus the extra inconvenience associated with it such as travelling costs, hospital accommodations, stress, and physical limitations (Sevean et al., 2008). Included in the patients bill in the hospital is the room accommodation, the longer they stay at the hospital the more they have to pay.Through Telehealth, patients who underwent surgeries or had suffered illnesses have the option to check-out early and continue the recuperation in t heir own homes thus, decreaseing the costs of their hospitalization. As mentioned earlier, people who live in small isolated communities have to travel kilometers to miles in order for them to realise with their health practitioner on the cities to get medical attention or follow-up from post-recovery, through telehealth they are able to save on transportation, gas milage and other extra expenses like parking fee. Moreover, Saqui et al, (2011) argued that telehealth consultation decreases morbidity, prevent unnecessary suboptimal costly treatment, patient transfers and travelling cost when a change in the diagnosing and treatment plan occur (Discussion Section, para. 2) Through videoconferencing, Telehealth are able to give immediate diagnosis for a patient who needs urgent care (Saqui et al., 2011). A lot of effort is involve before a patient could meet with his or her doctor such as making an appointment, sorting his or her plan and so on and so forth.By the time the person wit h health concern meets with his or her doctor the illness might already aggravated consequently, the health care system through Telehealth provides a quicker and more efficient way on determining the type and seriousness of the patients and illness without leaving the blow of their homes. By contacting Telehealth as soon as a person notices some irregularities in the persons normal body functions that indicates that he may or may not be ill, enable that person who called to act immediately preventing the illness from advancing any further or on the other kick in be reassured that theres nothing to worry about. Furthermore, Telehealth also made the monitoring on recovering patients at their homes faster, the registered nurse in-charge of monitoring the patient can guide the patient in his recovery make through a streaming media. Any concerns that may arise in the recovery process can be solved a lot quicker, the patient can leave a message or phoned and the health care provider wi ll respond to it as soon as possible stating the fact that Telehealth service is available 24 hours a day.Moscovice and Rosenblalt (2000) that the quality of health care cannot be metrical by the morbidity and mortality rates, but by the ability of the health care provider to recognize and respond to their patient immediately. One thing that proves that Telehealth is workable in improving the delivery of health-care is its acceptability. Although Telehealth is designed mostly to cater the health care needs of people living in the rural areas and isolated communities, according to Health Canada, Telehealth service has been extended to the impoverished, the socially disadvantaged, the institutionalized and the urban and suburban households has been added recently. The Telehealth system is tailored to improve enhance the access of the lymph glands and their families to the health system in regards to their location, gender, age and condition.Prinz et. al, identify age as a barrier th at create health discrepancy because of the limited access to health care, home bound office and issues on transportation which is why in older patients, a branch of Telehealth called Telemonitoring is being used to provide an immediate respond in case of emergency, to part with them to stay at their homes, to lessen the risk for accidents and to delay the institutionalization ( Pruski and Knops, 2005). This branch of telehealth has been proven to improve the elders quality of life, making the task of the caregiver easier, and lessen the elders admission to the hospital.The high acceptability of Telehealth comes from its ability to provide maximum support not only for the patients but also for their families. The clients feel secured because they are in a familiar environment where their families could assist them. Moreover, Telehealth has been proven to lessen the stress involve in the health care process especially for the patients with disabilities because of the bring down wa iting time, omitting the need for transportation. In 2005, 100 % of the respondents in the Pediatric Surgical Telehealth Clinics survey conducted by Miller and Levesque indicated that they are satisfied in the service of Telehealth and would press it to others (Sevean et. al, 2008). ConclusionThe four key themes of Telehealth discussed above service to rural areas, cost effectiveness, responsiveness, and ease of access and acceptability, and the description on how Telehealth works illustrate its feasibility in delivering the health care the clients need and the advantages of using Telehealth versus the traditional way of patient-to-health care practitioners.Telehealth provides better health care services in the rural areas and isolated communities, it also lessen the cost of access to health care by decreasing the need to travel and other expenses, in addition Telehealth also provides an immediate feedback to the client or patient that is important during emergency, therefore decre ases mortality and morbidity rate and lastly, it is designed for various ages, gender, disease to provide an ease of access and acceptability. Telehealth In shoemakers last is a more efficient way of delivering care to people through the use of various modern technologies its feasibility has been proven. The health of future and current generations depends on the availability and efficient delivery of health care.ReferencesOffice of Health and the Information Highway, Health Canada. (March 2000). Evaluating Telehealth Solutions A Review and Synthesis of the Telehealth Evaluation Literature. Retrieved from http//www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/ehealth-esante/2000-tele- eval/index-eng.php Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. (2009). Telehealth Program.-Ministry Program-Public Information. Retrieved from http//www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/telehealth/ Prinz, L., Cramer, M., Englund, A. (July-August 2008). Telehealth A policy analysis for quality, impact on patient out comes, and political feasibility. Nursing Outlook. 56(4), 152-158. Retrieved from http//www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0029655408000456Saqui O, Chang A, McGonigle S, Purdy B, Fairholm L, Baun M, Yeung M, Rossos P, Allard J. (2007). Telehealth videoconferencing Improving home parental alimentation parent care to rural areas of Ontario, Canada. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. 31(3), 234-239. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17463150 Sevean P, Dampier S, Spadoni M, Strickland S, Pilatzke S. (2009). Patients and families experiences with video telehealth in rural/remote communities in Northern Canada. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 18(1), 2573-2579. Retrieved from http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19694885Thede, Linda Q. (2001). Overview and compact Telehealth Promise Or Peril?. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. 6(30). 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