Data Analytics

Question One

Telehealth can assist to address equality of healthcare resource distribution by facilitating the provision of remote clinical services to various populations in need. For instance, people in rural areas have fewer healthcare resources compared to those in urban settings (Jaffe et al., 2020). However, with telehealth, these individuals can access various services from specialists in urban settings without having to visit them physically. Additionally, people from low-income households with chronic illnesses can have their vital signs constantly monitored without having to regularly visit hospitals and incur high healthcare costs.

However, certain barriers must be removed to achieve well-being, sufficiency, and healthcare access for all. For instance, there are policy-related barriers such as insurance coverage, legal/regulatory issues, and reimbursement (Jaffe et al., 2020). These policy barriers make it challenging for telehealth services to be offered to as many people as possible since these technologies are fairly new. Hence, there is insufficient policy development to outline exactly how they are to be used and to regulate their usage to guarantee their quality. Additionally, there are provider barriers that pose a problem in the adoption of telehealth services. Examples include the cost of equipment, limited training, and the uncertainty concerning the ability/value of these technologies in providing appropriate healthcare services.

Question Two

Several concepts are worth noting in the discussion of the telehealth topic. First, there is the concept of equity. The access to telehealth services should be fair and impartial if the healthcare industry is to witness significant positive change in healthcare outcomes among patients (Rooks-Ellis et al., 2020). Second, there is the concept of respect. When implementing telehealth services, both the service providers and patients must have respect in how they utilize the relevant technology. On the one hand, providers should ensure they protect the data they collect from the patients by implementing the relevant security protocols and ethical principles. On the other hand, patients should take care of the telehealth equipment to ensure the sustainability of the use of these technologies in the long term.

Third, there is the concept of self-determinism. Patients should have the autonomy of being involved in the decision-making of how they want the telehealth services to be administered to them. Fourth, there is the concept of health literacy. Both healthcare providers and consumers should be sensitized and educated on the best practices to adopt to utilize telehealth technologies effectively (Banbury et al., 2020). Fifth, there is the concept of cyclic disadvantage. Policies should be set up to ensure that marginalized populations and groups can use telehealth services without having to suffer the inequalities that have characterized them in the past when accessing healthcare services. Finally, there is the concept of healthcare disparities among marginalized populations/groups. The federal government has to come up with policies that allow people from marginalized groups to have the financial capacity to afford telehealth services without any discriminatory practices being levied on them.

Question Three

In the case scenario involving Mr. Kasich and Mr. Lane, each of these patients may benefit from telehealth services. Mr. Kasich is relatively old and lives in a remote location. Therefore, the telehealth services will help monitor his vital signs to ensure that if there are any potential problems, emergency services are dispatched early enough to get to him on time. Mr. Lane lives alone, which means in case of a problem, there will be nobody to report his condition to emergency services. However, with the telehealth services, the telehealth nurse will be constantly checking his condition and taking the relevant actions in real time. Nevertheless, there are certain ethical considerations to take note of from the nurse’s viewpoint. For starters, he/she should ensure that he/she maintains the confidentiality of his/her patients and keeping their data private (Watzlaf et al., 2017). Also, he/she must ensure the patients are regularly updated on their conditions so that their autonomy in making health-related decisions is upheld.

References

Banbury, A., Nancarrow, S., Dart, J., Gray, L., Dodson, S., Osborne, R., & Parkinson, L. (2020). Adding value to remote monitoring: Co-design of a health literacy intervention for older people with chronic disease delivered by telehealth-The telehealth literacy project. Patient Education and Counseling, 103(3), 597-606.

Jaffe, D. H., Lee, L., Huynh, S., & Haskell, T. P. (2020). Health inequalities in the use of telehealth in the United States in the lens of COVID-19. Population Health Management, 23(5), 368-377.

Rooks-Ellis, D., Howorth, S. K., Kunze, M., Boulette, S., & Sulinski, E. (2020). Effects of a parent training using telehealth: Equity and access to early intervention for rural families. Journal of Childhood, Education & Society, 1(2), 141-166.

Watzlaf, V. J., Zhou, L., DeAlmeida, D. R., & Hartman, L. M. (2017). A systematic review of research studies examining telehealth privacy and security practices used by healthcare providers. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 9(2), 39.