Telehealth Project: System Analysis and Design

This report presents a vision document for the Telehealth project, which aims to improve the quality of healthcare services and its delivery in the rural regions across the state. The report discusses the problems faced by healthcare professionals due to long distances, the capabilities of the Telehealth project, and the benefits it offers. The report concludes that the Telehealth project will enhance the patient outcome along with the health service quality.

Running head: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
System Analysis and Design
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Problem............................................................................................................................................2
Capabilities......................................................................................................................................3
Benefits............................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

2
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Introduction
Telehealth project aims to overcome the problem of long distance that is faced by the
healthcare professionals (Rutledge et al., 2014). This project is introduced for improving the
quality of healthcare services and its delivery in the rural regions across the state. Urgent
healthcare centres are built across the rural areas. Telehealth project is also building emergency
departments via video conferencing at the nearest hospitals. This report presents a vision
document for this Telehealth project.
Problem
Healthcare professionals and physicians are unable to provide healthcare services of
standard quality because of issues related to long distance. Rural areas lack proper healthcare
facilities and the physicians are unable to reach the patients on time in case of emergency
situations due to the long distance between the urban and rural areas (Paliadelis et al., 2012).
Communication is a major issue in case of delivery of health and related services such as
education and professional advice. Healthcare professionals and physicians are unable to deliver
timely healthcare services to the patients as well as educational support in the rural areas. Several
barriers like cost, distance and time prevent the healthcare professionals from delivering timely
and high quality health care and related services (Weinhold & Gurtner, 2014). The transportation
time as well as response time taken by the healthcare professionals of the emergency department
in the rural regions is comparatively more than that in the urban areas. These problems and
barriers have resulted in impair outcomes such as physical stress and emotional stress of the
patients.

3
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Capabilities
The capabilities of the Telehealth project will include video conferencing, efficient
storing of patient health records, monitoring the patients from distant location and mobile health.
Telehealth project will focus on promoting the usage of ICT for accessing healthcare services
from distant locations (Nagel, Pomerleau & Penner, 2013). Physicians will be able to manage the
health records and monitor patients’ health condition from remote locations. Telehealth will
focus on delivering health, medical and education services via virtual platforms. The capabilities
of Telehealth project are mentioned below.
Video conferencing: The Telehealth project will facilitate live communication between
the patients and healthcare professionals by utilizing the functionalities of telecommunication
technologies (Graves, 2012). This will be able to replace the in-person healthcare services and
provide diagnostic facility to the patients in real time.
Storing health records: This project will utilize ICT for storing as well as transmitting
patients’ health related data such as X-rays in a secured manner and help the physicians to
deliver quality healthcare services.
Patient monitoring: Telehealth will enable the physicians to monitor the health condition
of a patient and access the health records from a remote location in a timely and effective manner
(De San Miguel, Smith & Lewin, 2013).
Mobile health: Telehealth project will promote the use of healthcare apps and mobile
devices for improving healthcare facilities in the rural regions (Istepanian, Laxminarayan &
Pattichis, 2014). Physicians will be able to track health records of patients from various
locations.

4
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Benefits
Telehealth will be able to provide a cost effective, convenient and real time service to the
healthcare professionals and patients in the rural regions across the state. Telehealth will enhance
patient outcomes and improve the quality of delivery of the health care services. Communication
process between the patients and physicians will improve. The benefits of the Telehealth project
are described below.
Cost efficiency: Cost effective solutions will be provided by Telehealth. Video
conferencing will help the healthcare professionals to handle emergency situations in real time
and at minimal cost (Henderson et al., 2013). The travelling cost of the physicians will be saved
and the cost efficiencies of health care facilities will increase.
Improved access: Healthcare professionals will be able to access and track health records
of patients from remote locations with ease. Video conferencing will help the physicians to
expand their reach across the state and in rural regions. It will improve the access to care and
increase the patient satisfaction level.
Improved quality: Telehealth will enable the physicians to enhance the clinical workflow
and improve the quality of healthcare service. Organized information will help the healthcare
professionals in making correct and effective decisions for improving patient outcomes.
Conclusion
This report concludes that Telehealth project will play a significant role in improving the
access to the quality healthcare in the rural public hospitals. Video conferencing will solve the
problem related to long distance that exists between the healthcare professionals and patients and

5
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
improve the communication process. The above discussion clearly shows that the Telehealth
project will enhance the patient outcome along with the health service quality.

6
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
References
De San Miguel, K., Smith, J., & Lewin, G. (2013). Telehealth remote monitoring for
community-dwelling older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(9), 652-657.
Graves, B. A. (2012). Telehealth for communities: toward eliminating rural health
disparities. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 10(1), 4-6.
Henderson, C., Knapp, M., Fernández, J. L., Beecham, J., Hirani, S. P., Cartwright, M., ... &
Doll, H. (2013). Cost effectiveness of telehealth for patients with long term conditions
(Whole Systems Demonstrator telehealth questionnaire study): nested economic
evaluation in a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. Bmj, 346, f1035.
Istepanian, R., Laxminarayan, S., & Pattichis, C. S. (2014). M-health. John Wiley & Sons.
Nagel, D. A., Pomerleau, S. G., & Penner, J. L. (2013). Knowing, Caring, and Telehealth
Technology: “Going the Distance” in Nursing Practice. Journal of Holistic
Nursing, 31(2), 104-112.
Paliadelis, P. S., Parmenter, G., Parker, V., Giles, M., & Higgins, I. (2012). The challenges
confronting clinicians in rural acute care settings: a participatory research project. Rural
Remote Health, 12(2), 1-12.
Rutledge, C. M., Haney, T., Bordelon, M., Renaud, M., & Fowler, C. (2014). Telehealth:
preparing advanced practice nurses to address healthcare needs in rural and underserved
populations. International journal of nursing education scholarship, 11(1), 1-9.

7
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Weinhold, I., & Gurtner, S. (2014). Understanding shortages of sufficient health care in rural
areas. Health Policy, 118(2), 201-214.