see attachment C Week 5 respond to a student

Make a follow-up of a student's weekly discussion and respond with your opinion regarding to her post

------You don't have to post this in APA format necessarily, it's just giving feedback to the student with a paragraph, it doesn't have to be a lot of text----

Jennifer Goff

Healthcare policy; Telehealth waivers 

Early during the Covid-19 pandemic healthcare policy changed, allowing providers to bill telehealth services to Medicare and Medicaid temporarily under the Covid-19 public health emergency declaration (Policy Changes during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency | Telehealth.HHS.gov, n.d.). There are questions as to whether or not these flexibilities will be extended, as of right now some of the telehealth services will remain in effect until December 31, 2023. Telehealth services is extremely beneficial to rural areas. Telehealth services reduces travel time for patients, reduces no-show visits that cost providers money. Retirees could move away from their home town, away from their providers that they’ve had for years but still remain with the practice via telehealth. Telehealth is great for the disabled and elderly population as it can be difficult to physically go to doctor's appointments in person. I cannot think of any negative impact that telehealth would have on my community. If patient’s want to continue with in person visits no changes need to be made for them. A concern that a healthcare provider needs to be aware of is the importance of non-verbal communication by the patient. Since a telehealth will in large part be a discussion the provider needs to be aware of a patient’s nonverbal behavior such as “facial expressions, silence, eye contact, touch and other body language” as the provider could easily miss important information (Nies & McEwen, p. 236, 2019). 

Interdisciplinary collaboration would remain important, the same as it is without telehealth. The difference is that collaboration would be easier. Often rural areas rely on PA and NP to provide care for patients, telehealth would allow for easier, real-time evaluation of patients by specialist via telehealth. Follow up and monitoring patients would be easier via telehealth visits, there are instances when an in-person visit is needed but often times telehealth would be appropriate.  Emergency departments are often overloaded with patients that are not truly appropriate for the emergency department. In 2014 The Houston Fire Department initiated the Emergency Telehealth and Navigation (ETHAN) program. ETHAN uses interdisciplinary collaboration including telehealth along with social services to evaluate patients. This system has resulted in patients that have non-emergent needs to be directed away from the ED, resulting in reduced unnecessary emergency department patients, reduced ambulance transports to emergency departments and increasing the productivity of EMS personnel (Langabeer et al., 2016). 

Ethical concerns include privacy. When a patient is seen in person, they have the option to go into the exam room by themselves. Using telemedicine, they are no longer guaranteed that option. If a family member will not give them privacy by leaving the room the provider cannot make certain that privacy is afforded, this could compromise the visit as the patient may not be as honest with their symptoms or health history.  

Tweet 

Are you getting the most out of your healthcare? Ask your provider about Telehealth, it’s the future! #Telehealth #Telemedicine   https://telehealth.hhs.gov/patients/ (Links to an external site.)  

 

Thank you, Jen 

References 

Langabeer, J., Gonzalez, M., Alqusairi, D., Champagne-Langabeer, T., Jackson, A., Mikhail, J., & Persse, D. (2016). Telehealth-Enabled Emergency Medical Services Program Reduces Ambulance Transport to Urban Emergency Departments. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 17(6), 713–720.  https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2016.8.30660 (Links to an external site.)  

Nies & McEwen (2019). Community/Public Health Nursing. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from  https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780323528948/ (Links to an external site.)  

Policy changes during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency | Telehealth.HHS.gov. (n.d.). Telehealth.hhs.gov.  https://telehealth.hhs.gov/providers/policy-changes-during-the-covid-19-public-health-emergency/ (Links to an external site.)