Feasibility of Telehealth Essay

wellness is a vital aspect of life, which is wherefore it is important to have an door to different wellness safekeeping function. The dry lands cosmos is rising radically every year thus, the want for reference wellness cathexis services in addition incr residuals. With the screening of upstart technology the health dodging has been up to(p) to accommodate this demand in m all countries through with(predicate) the implementation of Telehealth. In Canada, accessibility and distribution of health cargon services is influenced by aspects like large landmass, population compactness and economy and (Sevean, et. al., 2008). The feasibleness of Telehealth as an instrument for de springyring health heraldic bearing services in Canada volition be discussed in this paper, foc victimisation on quaternary key themes service to rural areas, cost effectiveness, responsiveness and tranquillize of access that will be tackled consecutively. The first paragraph after the introd uction aims to part an overview on what and how Telehealth works in Canada. Central to the arguments presented in this paper is the pros of using Telehealth by means of telecommunication technologies as a substitute to the demonstrable patient-to-health care provider interaction.Telehealth is defined by wellness Canada (2000) as the application of telecommunications and randomness technology to the deliverance of health care and health-related services and information over large and short distances. It is basically divided into two discrete parts the technology being used and the persons (patient or health care provider) (Thede, 2001, para. 2). Telehealth according to Prinz, Cramer, and Englund uses four modes of telecommunication voice- plainly or telephone, image images or flip of information through digital pictures, and virtual contract or video conferencing (Background section, para. 4). Included in the Telehealth Ontario service is a contact number that you batch Canad ians muckle call 24 hours a day seven eld a week. In consulting the health care provider through phone, at once on the line, the health care provider, usually registered take hold, will asks the person on the other line to describe his or her health concern, the nurse will then evaluate the persons condition and will sustain him or her to determine the best option available for him or her whether to go see a doctor, admit himself or herself in an emergency room, the nurse can alike advise self-care (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, 2009).Telehealth has already been structured in al close every checkup field like Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Cardiology, radioscopy and Oncology providing accuracy and more services to people. Telehealth aims to elevate the serviceability of health arranging 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 la rge landmass with bodies of water surrounding it. The population is not equally distributed, most Canadians live in urban areas, and some smaller communities are located at rural areas and the Aboriginals mostly live in small disjunct areas. In the study they conducted in 2008, Sevean, Dampier, Spadoni, Strickland and, Pilatzke piece out that Canadians who live in smaller spaced community do not have an access to a quality health care because even though Canada has an excellent health services most of these health services centered on the urban areas and that is also why most health care professionals favor working on urban areas resulting to a shortage of health care professionals in the rural areas.In addition, particularized 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 get the medical help they contend. Most road conditions in the rural areas are ru dimentary increasing their cark. Also, weather condition is also a great consideration in accessing health care, air and sea travel is usually off during storms most roads are also inaccessible when there is a strong d declarepour of snow. Unavailability of help during emergencies results in fatality in particular in the northern Aboriginal communities (Sevean et. al, 2008). By ameliorate the access of health care for rural access it also decreases the death rate rate. Telehealth is designed to shrink 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 thirster they stay at the hospital the more they have to pay.Through Telehealth, pat ients who underwent surgeries or had suffered infirmityes have the option to check-out early and continue the recovery in their own homes thus, lessening 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 meet with their health practitioner on the cities to get medical attention or work through 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 inessential suboptimal costly treatment, patient transfers and travelling cost when a change in the diagnosis and treatment plan occur (Discussion Section, para. 2) Through videoconferencing, Telehealth are able to give immediate diagnosis for a patient who require urgent care (Saqui et al., 2011). A green goddess of effort is involve before a patient co uld meet with his or her doctor such as reservation an appointment, sorting his or her schedule and so on and so forth.By the time the person with health concern meets with his or her doctor the nausea might already aggravated consequently, the health care system through Telehealth provides a quicker and more efficient elbow room on find the type and seriousness of the patients and illness without leaving the comfort of their homes. By contacting Telehealth as soon as a person notices some irregularities in the persons normal body functions that indicates that he whitethorn or may not be ill, enable that person who called to act immediately preventing the illness from advancing any further or on the other give be reassured that theres nothing to worry about. Furthermore, Telehealth also made the monitor on recovering patients at their homes faster, the registered nurse in-charge of monitoring the patient can guide the patient in his recovery mold 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 will 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 measured by the morbidity and death rate rates, but by the ability of the health care provider to see and respond to their patient immediately. One thing that proves that Telehealth is feasible 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 clien ts and their families to the health system in regards to their location, gender, age and condition.Prinz et. al, identify age as a barrier that build health discrepancy because of the limited access to health care, home jump out status 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 allow them to stay at their homes, to lessen the risk for accidents and to go the institutionalization ( Pruski and Knops, 2005). This branch of telehealth has been proven to improve the elders quality of life, fashioning the task of the caregiver easier, and lessen the elders admission to the hospital.The broad(prenominal) 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 long-familiar environment where their families could assist them. Moreov er, Telehealth has been proven to lessen the stress involve in the health care process especially for the patients with disabilities because of the reduced waiting 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 recommend it to others (Sevean et. al, 2008). deductionThe 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 t ravel and other expenses, in addition Telehealth also provides an immediate feedback to the client or patient that is important during emergency, therefore decreases mortality and morbidity rate and lastly, it is designed for various ages, gender, disease to provide an ease of access and acceptability. Telehealth In conclusion 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 revaluation 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.healt h.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 outcomes, and political feasibility. breast feeding 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 set upal nutrition 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 compend Telehealth Promise Or Peril?. Online Jour nal of Issues in Nursing. 6(30). Retrieved from www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume62001/No3Sept01/TelehealthOverview.aspx Vincent, C., Reinharz, D., Deaudelin, I., Garcieau, M. (2005).Why some Health Care Professionals Adopt Telemonitoring and Others Not?. In Pruski, A. & Knops, H (Eds.). Assistive engineering science From Virtuality to Reality. Amsterdam, Netherlands IOS Press