As a Critical Access Hospital (CAH), we serve those who have difficulty accessing specialist services and per the American Hospital Association “approximately 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas” (American Hospital Association, 2015), that have breaks in specialist care availability. That is where telemedicine could improve the patient’s quality of care, and their ability to access this quality care without causing issues that complicate their health or financial situation. Telemedicine is explained as usage of medical information, and telecommunications exchanged from one site to another for diagnosing, treating, and monitoring a patient’s health status (Wilson & Maeder, 2015).
Risks
There are regulations that our facility already should adhere to, and they become more prevalent when introducing technology, electronic health records (EHRs), and electronic handling of patient information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) defines the regulated uses for personal health information (PHI) concerning mandatory authorized disclosures or permissive disclosures (Cahill, 2014). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) emphasizes and enforces the transmission of PHI between providers, patients, and payers by implementing audits, breach notifications, and penalties to ensure that PMI is secure and encrypted (Cahill, 2014). The CAH face challenges with access to the appropriate high-speed internet and technology. Since technology is the most significant challenge they faced at their facility, telemedicine requires secure lines, a substantial amount of bandwidth capacity, and a comprehensive information technology department, as it is not just like Skype (K. Paarmann, personal communication, October 23, 2016). One of the larger concerns is the technology aspect and potential breaches, or technology failure during a telemedicine consultation in the emergency room, the intensive care unit, or during a stroke care episode. The technology needs to have appropriate and consistent oversight to ensure that it is always ready to be utilized. During my interview with Katie Pace R.N., SCRN, the SWMN Regional Stork and Joint Coordinator for Mayo Clinic Health Systems, she acknowledged that it is a benefit to acquire and maintenance the technology portion of the telemedicine services by using a provider such as InTouch Health. As InTouch provides consistent technical support that pings the network and services utilized by the organization every three minutes to assure there are no glitches in the technology (K. Pace, personal communication, November 3, 2016). The implementation costs can be an overwhelming factor for a Critical Access Hospital, and that is why teaming up with technology companies that have the capacity to handle the significant amount of healthcare data while providing security, encryption, firewalls, reliability, and healthcare compliance is the purchaser 's focal point. As noted technology is a substantial investment when reviewing a telemedicine endeavor and as the InTouch Health system described has “invested over $50M into a cloud infrastructure, …. includes 7 U.S.-hosted data centers covering the Americas” (InTouch Technologies, Inc, 2016). Although everything technical cannot be handled at a distance by a company such as InTouch Health, our facility should configure a standard telemedicine technology format with the Trauma Center. Then hire and apply our organization 's information technology department to oversee day-to-day hospital site operations. Another assessment and implementation that must occur are the evaluations of our current medical liability insurance and its current coverage concerning technology and telemedicine. Depending on those results, we are to determine if all the future services areas will be covered, and how to receive and assure there is coverage for the collaborative providers that will be engaging in telemedicine services. Then to determine if additional malpractice or liability insurance needs to be applied and to determine what protocol will be involved if damages occur to a patient while receiving care among this collaborative action. The question that is to be defined and settled by the contractual agreement between the organizations are who, …show more content…
However, patients especially “older cancer survivors in rural areas were 66% more likely to forgo medical care than their urban counterparts” (Kutscher, 2014), as the travel costs associated with specialist’s care, and their inadequate close social support system attributed to rural patients decline in seeking appropriate medical
Risks
There are regulations that our facility already should adhere to, and they become more prevalent when introducing technology, electronic health records (EHRs), and electronic handling of patient information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) defines the regulated uses for personal health information (PHI) concerning mandatory authorized disclosures or permissive disclosures (Cahill, 2014). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) emphasizes and enforces the transmission of PHI between providers, patients, and payers by implementing audits, breach notifications, and penalties to ensure that PMI is secure and encrypted (Cahill, 2014). The CAH face challenges with access to the appropriate high-speed internet and technology. Since technology is the most significant challenge they faced at their facility, telemedicine requires secure lines, a substantial amount of bandwidth capacity, and a comprehensive information technology department, as it is not just like Skype (K. Paarmann, personal communication, October 23, 2016). One of the larger concerns is the technology aspect and potential breaches, or technology failure during a telemedicine consultation in the emergency room, the intensive care unit, or during a stroke care episode. The technology needs to have appropriate and consistent oversight to ensure that it is always ready to be utilized. During my interview with Katie Pace R.N., SCRN, the SWMN Regional Stork and Joint Coordinator for Mayo Clinic Health Systems, she acknowledged that it is a benefit to acquire and maintenance the technology portion of the telemedicine services by using a provider such as InTouch Health. As InTouch provides consistent technical support that pings the network and services utilized by the organization every three minutes to assure there are no glitches in the technology (K. Pace, personal communication, November 3, 2016). The implementation costs can be an overwhelming factor for a Critical Access Hospital, and that is why teaming up with technology companies that have the capacity to handle the significant amount of healthcare data while providing security, encryption, firewalls, reliability, and healthcare compliance is the purchaser 's focal point. As noted technology is a substantial investment when reviewing a telemedicine endeavor and as the InTouch Health system described has “invested over $50M into a cloud infrastructure, …. includes 7 U.S.-hosted data centers covering the Americas” (InTouch Technologies, Inc, 2016). Although everything technical cannot be handled at a distance by a company such as InTouch Health, our facility should configure a standard telemedicine technology format with the Trauma Center. Then hire and apply our organization 's information technology department to oversee day-to-day hospital site operations. Another assessment and implementation that must occur are the evaluations of our current medical liability insurance and its current coverage concerning technology and telemedicine. Depending on those results, we are to determine if all the future services areas will be covered, and how to receive and assure there is coverage for the collaborative providers that will be engaging in telemedicine services. Then to determine if additional malpractice or liability insurance needs to be applied and to determine what protocol will be involved if damages occur to a patient while receiving care among this collaborative action. The question that is to be defined and settled by the contractual agreement between the organizations are who, …show more content…
However, patients especially “older cancer survivors in rural areas were 66% more likely to forgo medical care than their urban counterparts” (Kutscher, 2014), as the travel costs associated with specialist’s care, and their inadequate close social support system attributed to rural patients decline in seeking appropriate medical