Critical Access Hospital Case Study

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 …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