Evaluation of Healthcare Technology
Technology has become a significant resource in healthcare delivery, making a substantial contribution to the enhancement of health outcomes in the healthcare sector. There are various technologies used in healthcare play a significant role in enhancing care quality, saving time, and reducing care provision costs. This paper seeks to evaluate the Telehealth technology, which entails using technology to deliver services for healthcare in situations where there is a distance between the providers of healthcare and patients. Telehealth also makes it possible to facilitate face-to-face communication. Telehealth makes it easy for information to get shared between caregivers over long distances concerning the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of medical conditions. It also makes it possible for healthcare providers to monitor the patient’s vitals and how they respond to medication, reduce readmissions, and enhance the delivery of health care.
Measuring the element in technology
There are various steps that one can take in measuring the element using Telehealth technology. The multiple ways to measure it include understanding the current environment of technology to be able to establish how to effectively achieve the desired goals, showing the kind of data that will be getting moved from one point to the other using the technology, in this how the technology will get used in terms of managing the communication between the caregivers and the patients. Another aspect is understanding the problem that technology is meant to help solve and evaluating the improvement that will be brought about by using the technology (Assasi, 2016). One has to make an analysis of the specific functionality of Telehealth that exists in the organization internally and how the organization is currently applying it. It’s about understanding what the tech that exists can do then using Telehealth to improve the processes. The evaluation is essential in helping ensure that Telehealth is the most effective and functional technology to meet the needs of the organization in enhancing the delivery of care to the patients.
Evaluation elements
There are various elements that get used in the evaluation of the user-technology interface. The user-technology interface is the point of communication and interaction between individuals using a computer. The assessment helps establish the most suitable Telehealth method to be used to meet the needs of the patients. The elements that will get used in the evaluation include accessibility to care, effectiveness, financial impact, and experience. Further details on three of the elements are as discussed below.
Accessibility
Accessibility to care entails Telehealth’s ability to provide clinical services in a significant way by making it accessible to patients that live in the areas that are remote in the country and being feasible in delivering services that are specialized like care in emergency situations (Badowski et al., 2020). This domain has several components that need to be evaluated to establish the ability of Telehealth to be accessible to patients that cannot be able to physically be present in healthcare centers. These components include availability, accessibility, acceptability, availability, and accommodation.
Financial cost/impact
The financial cost/impact is an essential element in determining whether the cost would be affordable for the patients. It entails considering the financial implications of Telehealth on the care team, patients and their caregivers, the system of healthcare at large, the community as a whole, and the providers of insurance (Arkwright et al., 2019). the financial impact/cost of Telehealth measures include saving the travel miles that a patient would take if they were to physically visit the hospital, getting returns on the investment made by the healthcare organization in adopting the technology, and minimizing the costs per visit as the patient would be able to get the services of a doctor at the comfort of their home and freely get information about their health through the internet.
Experience
This element is essential in establishing how effective and user-friendly Telehealth is in terms of usage for the caregivers, the patients, the providers, and the community at large. This element makes an evaluation of the ability of the Telehealth Program to meet the needs of the providers and the patients. The measures for experience establish whether the providers get satisfied with the experience of Telemedicine, the clarity of the care instructions to the patients, and the compliance of the patients with the plan of care. The various factors that influence how effective the program includes the environmental and socio-economic setting, the care type that is getting delivered, and the technology type.
Assessment to determine the functionality
Assessing the functionality of the use of Telehealth technology entails evaluating how suited the technology is in serving its purpose well and being functional when it comes to being applied in real situations (Schieltz & Wacker, 2020). One element and factor, in this case, is assessing the possibility of errors that may arise in the processes of providing telehealth services to ensure that the safety of patients is assured. Telehealth, however, reduces the chances of medication errors through the use of telemedicine services like electronic record keeping and prescribing. Safety is key in the provision of care, and for this reason, the providers of healthcare have to assess the technology to ensure that it is free of errors to be able to achieve the outcomes that are desired in the process.
Another human factor that needs to get assessed is the human-machine interaction, which facilitates the communication between the healthcare providers and the caregivers, the physicians and patients, and the care team in coordinating the delivery of care to the patients. This entails assessing the ability of the patients to effectively use the communication and determine whether it is effective to the level that is expected. The use of Telehealth in face-to-face communication between patients and physicians needs to be evaluated to ensure that it is effective in achieving the outcomes that are positive in the provision of care (Badowski et al., 2020). The site of work has to be evaluated for safety to ensure that the communication is safe and that the records of the patent and are kept safe. The work stations of the healthcare providers have to be sufficient to ensure that there is no confusion or distractions during face-to-face communications between the physicians and the patients.
The financial element needs to get accessed in such a way that the Telehealth program has to be implemented in such a way that it is cost-friendly for the patients in areas that are rural and those that cannot afford access to the hospital because of the high care costs. The program has to be of friendly prices to ensure that it meets the purpose it is aimed for, which is to enhance access to care and improve the quality of care in the institutions of health services. The goals of Telehealth can only get met if it is accessible, affordable. Also, the ability of the patients to use the technology and find the experience effective in enhancing quality care gets accessed to be able to meet the goals that have been set. The usability of the technology is a significant human factor in that for it to be effective, the patients and caregivers have to be able to understand how it functions.
Practicable improvement suggestions
In the implementation of the Telehealth program, there are several measures that can get taken to enhance the effectiveness of the elements by improving them to be better than they are. The financial cost element can get improved if the organizations establish ways of reducing the costs to ensure that it is affordable for all the people that need it, including the low-income earners (Jones, 2017). By making Telehealth affordable, healthcare organizations can significantly help improve the health of the community by making it accessible to people in communities that are remote with no means of acquiring financial stability. The financial element can also get improved by holding fundraisings and charity activities so that they help fund the implementation of the program in poor communities to enhance their outcomes of health.
The improvements in the element of the experience of the patients and the caregivers in using the technology can get improved in several ways to enhance its effectiveness. One way through which the improvement can get done is by establishing programs for training where the patients, the caregivers, and healthcare providers can be able to understand how the program functions to be able to effectively use the program. The effectiveness of care depends more on how effective the individuals involved can be able to use it. The equipment has to be easy to use to ensure that patients of all ages can be able to use it in communicating with their caregivers to ensure that they are able to achieve the outcomes that are desired.
The element of accessibility can get enhanced can get improved by the organization to ensure that healthcare gets accessed for individuals that cannot physically be in the hospital in several ways. They can create a team of professionals that can make mobile visits to the homes of the people that cannot get access to the hospital, and educate them on the use of Telemedicine to ensure they have access. This is especially important for people in low-income communities who cannot afford to travel long distances to acquire health care. Making sure that the services are available in rural areas is a significant improvement to the program’s accessibility.
Conclusion
Telehealth technology is a significant contributor to the improvement of outcomes of health. It has opened room for the advancement of care practices in health care organizations where. The access to care by the population has also been significantly improved by the introduction of technology in the delivery of healthcare. The evaluation of the particular technology is essential in ensuring that it is safe, quality, and effective in achieving its set purpose in healthcare.
References
Arkwright, B. T., Leslie, M., & Light, M. (2019). Telehealth Finance Variables and Successful Business Models. Telehealth and Medicine Today. Retrieved from https://telehealthandmedicinetoday.com/index.php/journal/article/download/140/164?inline=1
Assasi, N. (2016). ETHICAL EVALUATION IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/handle/11375/19287
Badowski, M. E., Wright, E. A., Bainbridge, J., Michienzi, S. M., Nichols, S. D., Turner, K. M., … & Martin, R. D. (2020). Implementation and evaluation of comprehensive medication management in telehealth practices. Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, 3(2), 520-531. Retrieved from https://accpjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jac5.1210
Jones, J. (2017). Maximizing Your Success with Telehealth. Telehealth and Medicine Today, 2(1). Retrieved from https://www.middleeastmedicalportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Maximizing-Your-Success-with-Telehealth.pdf
Schieltz, K. M., & Wacker, D. P. (2020). Functional assessment and function‐based treatment delivered via Telehealth: A brief summary. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(3), 1242-1258. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jaba.742