Telehealth case study

Direction for Telehealth Case Study Paper
Case Study Paper (100 points): Every student will be assigned a case study on an emerging element of technology in health care. The topic for the case study will be Telehealth

Your paper should include:

1) Researching this Telehealth initiative. Discuss the background of Telehealth. State the
licensure implications for Nursing and Physician practicing Telehealth. (15 points)

2) State its intended populations. Discuss aspects of the population ex: age, physical limitations, location etc. (15 points)

3) Describe the pros/cons of Telehealth. (10 points)

4) What is the cost? Discuss all cost factors. For example: to patient, insurance, medical centers and doctor’s offices. (15 points)

5) Describe the implementation plan. Describe the steps to have a Telehealth system implemented. (10 points)

6) In the case of Mrs. C. what critical data was transmitted to the Telenurse that indicating her health status had changed? ( 10 points)

7) Without the Telehealth technology early detection what could the possible outcome have been for Mrs. C? (10 points)

8) APA format. (15 points)

This is a 2-3-page, double spaced paper

Early Detection of a Change in Condition
Mrs. C., an independent, 96-year-old woman, has a history of rehospitalization because of atrial fibrillation resulting from CHF and hypertension.
After her most recent hospitalization, Mrs. C. was treated and released into home care at an agency in Washington. A home telemonitoring system that tracks and transmits patients’ vital signs was placed in her home. The primary goal of placing this patient on the telemonitor was to provide daily monitoring of her condition, thereby avoiding unnecessary rehospitalizations.
One morning, Mrs. C.’s telenurse detected an alarmingly low oxygen saturation level in the patient’s transmitted data. In response, the nurse telephoned Mrs. C. and asked her to retake her oxygen reading. The reading was confirmed and the telenurse contacted the patient’s physician, who requested immediate transportation of the patient to the hospital emergency room. Medics were called and Mrs. C. was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism.
The prompt response resulted from early detection and timely intervention enabled by the home telehealth equipment and a home health nurse’s oversight. One notable fact in this case is that although the primary goal of monitoring patients is to avoid unnecessary hospitalization, in this case the hospitalization was necessary for the patient as a result of her elevated blood pressure and compromised oxygen saturation levels. The patient was still asymptomatic at the time of detection. However, the telehealth intervention and subsequent hospitalization allowed for the embolism to be treated before any serious damage occurred.
Under the traditional home care model, this patient might have been seen by a nurse only two to three times per week, and the clinician does not have knowledge of the patient’s condition in between visits. However, having vital patient data tracked and transmitted daily allowed for rapid response that resulted in a positive outcome, perhaps a life-saving intervention for this patient.