Impact of Telehealth on Healthcare Delivery: Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of telehealth, defining its key characteristics as remote service provision, automation, and timely access to care. It explores the impact of telehealth on nursing practice, highlighting its ability to improve care for remote patients, enhance nurses' skills, and facilitate communication. The report examines the integration of telehealth in healthcare systems, emphasizing its role in scheduling appointments, providing remote services, and improving patient outcomes. It presents evidence-based practices supporting telehealth in rural and community healthcare, including studies on addressing health disparities and delivering various telehealth services. The report recommends strategies for effective telehealth implementation, such as utilizing technologies like video conferencing and providing workforce training to address challenges like language barriers and legal issues. The rationale for these strategies is to overcome practical challenges and maximize the potential of telehealth in healthcare delivery.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Defining characteristics of telehealth:
Telehealth is a technology that provides the opportunity for remote screening,
assessment, diagnosis and treatment of health care consumers using information and
communication technology likes computers and mobile phones. Some of the defining
characteristics of telehealth are provision for remote service, automation and timely access to
care (Tuckson, Edmunds & Hodgkins, 2017). The personal definition of telehealth includes those
services that provide the opportunity to provide care without the need to visit health clinic by the
use of communication technologies like telephones and laptop.
Impact of telehealth on nursing practice:
Telehealth is a technology that improves nursing practice by giving nurses the
opportunity to provide care to patients living in remote areas. Emergence of this technology has
supported nurse to acquire advanced clinical skills and develop the expertise to handle digital
communication technology to interact with patient. It has given nurse the opportunity to engage
in professional development. In addition, telehealth has allowed nurses to improve
communication with caregivers and patients and customize patient care quickly and effectively
(Bashir & Bastola, 2018).
Integration of telehealth in healthcare:
Telehealth is currently integrated in health care system in different ways. Telehealth is
now being is used to schedule patient appointment, provide remote based services and
recommend patient to appropriate care service. Effective integration of telehealth in daily health
service ensures that patients receive the right care at the right place and at the right time. It is

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likely to increase access, decrease variations in care and achieve better health outcomes locally,
nationally and internationally (Kao et al., 2018).
Evidence-based practice that supports the use of telehealth in rural and community
healthcare settings:
In relation to the case scenario, it has been found that timeliness of care for elderly
patients are disrupted because of remoteness, lack of provider access and challenges in arranging
transportation needs for the appointments. Hence, telehealth is necessary in rural and community
health care setting to address the above challenges. The evidence based practice that supports use
of telehealth in rural setting includes the study by Goodridge and Marciniuk (2016) which gives
evidence regarding the contribution of telehealth in addressing health disparities for rural
population. The study gave evidence regarding the delivery of five types of telehealth service
that helped to facilitate respiratory care for rural communities. It used remote monitoring, remote
consultation, remote pulmonary rehabilitation, telepharmacy and remote monitoring to improve
respiratory outcomes of people living in rural or remote regions. Taking cue from this evidence,
similar steps can be taken to implement telehealth in real settings too.
Recommended evidence-based strategy to implement telehealth
To effectively implement telehealth and integrate it in rural setting, it is recommended to
adapt technologies like internet, imaging, videoconferencing and wireless communications to
facilitate interaction with remote patients. This should be followed by appropriate training of
workforce at the clinical setting because telehealth programs cannot be successful unless cultural
and human factors like language barriers, lack of acceptance and knowledge of telehealth are

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addressed. Training can also help to resolve legal issues that may arise in telehealth services. For
example, it may help staffs to comply with legal considerations like informed consent, patient
privacy and confidentiality issues (Goodridge & Marciniuk, 2016). The main rationale for using
these strategies for implementation is that it is likely to address practical challenges that may
occur during implementation. The study by Papanagnou, Sicks and Hollander (2015) supports
that strategic thinking related to telehealth implementation involves providing training to staff to
facilitate achieving full potential of telehealth.

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References:
Bashir, A., & Bastola, D. R. (2018). Perspectives of Nurses Toward Telehealth Efficacy and
Quality of Health Care: Pilot Study. JMIR medical informatics, 6(2), e35.
Goodridge, D., & Marciniuk, D. (2016). Rural and remote care: Overcoming the challenges of
distance. Chronic respiratory disease, 13(2), 192–203.
Kao, H. Y., Wei, C. W., Yu, M. C., Liang, T. Y., Wu, W. H., & Wu, Y. J. (2018). Integrating a
mobile health applications for self-management to enhance Telecare system. Telematics
and Informatics, 35(4), 815-825.
Papanagnou, D., Sicks, S., & Hollander, J. E. (2015). Training the next generation of care
providers: focus on telehealth. Healthcare Transformation, 1(1), 52-63.
Tuckson, R. V., Edmunds, M., & Hodgkins, M. L. (2017). Telehealth. New England Journal of
Medicine, 377(16), 1585-1592.