Telenursing: Is It In My Future? Hebda & Czar (2013), states, “Telenursing is the use of telecommunications and information technology (IT) for the delivery of nursing care”. Telenursing is ultimately a process in which nurses can interact with patients via phone, interactive video conferencing, online portals, or Personal Health Records (PHRs). For many years, the government had been making efforts to hasten the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) and the technologies that supports it in an effort to bring down the rising costs in health care. This was until President Obama proclaimed the National Health Information Technology, which entailed that healthcare providers and patients were to be connected in a universal way once all phases
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The primary benefits to telenursing are reduced costs, improved quality of care, and the ability to see more patients more efficiently. Other advantages are; increased public access to healthcare, increased patient compliance, it provides access to rural areas, increases continuity of care, and it decreases wait times. The home health agency that I used to work for used telenursing and actually saw an increase with their patient compliance to their specific plan of care. The patients were instructed to use the monitors, and were also encouraged to use them even on days the nurses made in home visits so they could get in the habit of using them. All patients were notified that if they had not used their telemonitors by a specific time, that a nurse would be calling in to check on them. The patients were then asked to do a survey in which a very high percentage expressed great satisfaction in knowing that someone was checking on them every day. This helped to improve the self-care abilities and independence of the …show more content…
“Medicare and Medicaid services have yet to formally define or recognize telemedicine as a service in the Medicaid program” (Hebda & Czar, 2013). At this current time, each states’ preference is in fact reimbursement to cover those that would benefit from this system. Another presenting concern is the lack of standards and liabilities because a hands on approach is not being done upon examination. In addition, care that is being rendered across state lines posses another liability issue due to every state carrying their own practice scopes and guidelines. This would pose the question that if there were a malpractice lawsuit was to occur, which state laws would the guilty party have to abide by and be charged? For example, a resident of Ohio seeking out medical advice from a telenurse living in Michigan, in which different scopes of practices are required by nurses from those two states. The question still remains if medical advice can/ should be allowed from a healthcare provider that is not licensed in that specific state. Nurses must be very cautious when providers from different states give them directions until this issue is resolved. “Several state boards of nursing specifically forbid taking instructions from providers not licensed in the current state”(Hebda & Czar, 2013). Other disadvantages of telenursing are; decreased face-to-face
The primary benefits to telenursing are reduced costs, improved quality of care, and the ability to see more patients more efficiently. Other advantages are; increased public access to healthcare, increased patient compliance, it provides access to rural areas, increases continuity of care, and it decreases wait times. The home health agency that I used to work for used telenursing and actually saw an increase with their patient compliance to their specific plan of care. The patients were instructed to use the monitors, and were also encouraged to use them even on days the nurses made in home visits so they could get in the habit of using them. All patients were notified that if they had not used their telemonitors by a specific time, that a nurse would be calling in to check on them. The patients were then asked to do a survey in which a very high percentage expressed great satisfaction in knowing that someone was checking on them every day. This helped to improve the self-care abilities and independence of the …show more content…
“Medicare and Medicaid services have yet to formally define or recognize telemedicine as a service in the Medicaid program” (Hebda & Czar, 2013). At this current time, each states’ preference is in fact reimbursement to cover those that would benefit from this system. Another presenting concern is the lack of standards and liabilities because a hands on approach is not being done upon examination. In addition, care that is being rendered across state lines posses another liability issue due to every state carrying their own practice scopes and guidelines. This would pose the question that if there were a malpractice lawsuit was to occur, which state laws would the guilty party have to abide by and be charged? For example, a resident of Ohio seeking out medical advice from a telenurse living in Michigan, in which different scopes of practices are required by nurses from those two states. The question still remains if medical advice can/ should be allowed from a healthcare provider that is not licensed in that specific state. Nurses must be very cautious when providers from different states give them directions until this issue is resolved. “Several state boards of nursing specifically forbid taking instructions from providers not licensed in the current state”(Hebda & Czar, 2013). Other disadvantages of telenursing are; decreased face-to-face