Assignent Solutionnurs

RESPONSE 1:
Specifics associated with telehealth care in rural areas to meet needs in potentially underserved populations would incorporate minimizing encounters and problems that many of the rural patients may encounter, like finding transportation linked to traveling for specialty care. Utilizing telehealth in rural communities can improve monitoring, timeliness, and communications within the healthcare system. Telehealth uses telecommunications technology and other electronic information to aid with quantifiable healthcare services that is delivered remotely, which could include providing education, administrative functions, and peer meetings. Whereas one of the most common imageries of telehealth is that of a patient talking by videoconference alongside a healthcare provider who is located remotely, telehealth can take on other forms, such as: Remote patient monitoring (RPM), store and forward transmission of medical information, mobile health communication (mHealth) (Rural Health Information Hub 2021). Telehealth specifically in rural communities can increase volume, raise the quality of healthcare, and bring down the overall costs by reducing readmissions and avoidable emergency department visits for rural communities. Telehealth would permit small rural hospitals and clinics to offer superior healthcare assistances locally and at affordable prices, which would benefit many of the rural patients since they won’t need to travel long distances to be in contact for their specialty care. Preventing patient transfers when care can be provided locally is extremely critical for both small hospitals and provider feasibility in rural areas. It also benefits many tertiary care centers to help keep beds open for patients that are much more in need of critical care. In an article a recent article found on the, Telemedicine Services During COVID-19: Considerations for Medically Underserved Populations, a 2020 commentary in The Journal of Rural Health, examines the potential of telemedicine to increase access to healthcare for underserved communities. The article discussed about how telemedicine has grown in its usefulness and convenience and that it is now becoming more sustainable for providers, even though barriers still remain, such as limited broadband access and patient technological capability. A COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition survey conducted between March 2020 and January 2021 explores patient experiences with telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing issues of access, reduced barriers to care, and satisfaction with telehealth services. Utilizing telehealth to deliver specialty services is more practicable for rural healthcare facilities than staffing those rural facilities with specialty and subspecialty providers. Telehealth accepts specialists and subspecialists to visit rural patients virtually, improving access as well as making a wider range of healthcare services available to rural communities via telemedicine, including: Radiology, psychiatry and behavioral health services, ophthalmology, Dermatology, Dentistry, Audiology, Cardiology, Oncology, and Obstetrics, and Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)(Woodall et al., 2020).
RESPONSE 2:
Telehealth is a form of technology that has allowed for patient care to expand to a different level by allowing patients and caregivers or providers to communicate with each other without having to be in front of one another. Rural Health Information Hub (2022) mentions that telehealth can assist healthcare systems, organizations, and providers in expanding access to and improve the quality of rural health care. It is important to note that an area is considered rural when it is away from the urbanized environment, located in the countryside or in a village that is low in population and resources. Using telehealth can aid rural area by removing certain challenges that can be faced by individuals in rural areas, such as lack of transportation. By incorporating telehealth, individuals in rural settings are able to be monitored more closely, within the appropriate timeframe, and communicated to as needed without interruption. Rural Health Information Hub (2022) also mentions that telehealth can overall drive volume, increase quality of health care, and reduce overall costs by reducing readmission and avoidable emergency department visits in rural communities. In a study conducted by Leath et al. (2018) they studied a small rural county named Macon County. This county consisted of citizens who were relatively poor and suffered from chronic diseases and found that these individuals were more likely to not visit their provider regularly and would wait until an emergent situation arose to look for care. It was noted that individuals who lived in the rural areas needed to travel 25-40 miles to get care and it just was not feasible for most to do so. By incorporating telehealth in the rural areas, care for chronic conditions would be doable and prevention of complications would readily follow. As an APRN, it is evident that Telehealth has moved boundaries of care and if placed in the correct settings, it can be used to help patients that at one point in time were unreachable.