Telehealth is a healthcare delivery approach that involves the use of electronic and telecommunications devices to provide clinical services and healthcare-related information remotely.Hood(2018,p.366) defines telehealth as the utilization of technology for disease diagnosis and treatment of a patient at a remote place by healthcare providers. As a result, telehealth has a wide range of uses, such as online patient engagement, telehealth nursing, remote psychiatry, physical rehabilitation, and a remote control. Thus, it increases the quality of emergency services, informs healthcare choices, saves the costs of patients and doctors by capitalizing on clinical processes, and decreases travel expenses for hospitals(Haleem et al.,2021,p.2).In the last three decades, telehealth trends such as robotics, genomic medicine, online training for nurses, telemonitoring, and reimbursement methods have significantly impacted nursing practice and healthcare delivery. Telemonitoring is a form of telehealth whereby a nurse calls a patient to connect to the system and get real-time images and data that is stored electronically, thus enabling client access to the home health nurse on a daily basis(Hood, 2018,p.366). Still, the use of robotics in performing nursing roles such as meal tray delivery, taking vital signs, and making routine rounds constitutes a telehealth trend in nursing practice. According to(Hood,2018,p.372), robotics are being utilized in surgery and other invasive processes to eliminate human error, thus increasing the accessibility of sophisticated procedures for people living in remote rural areas.
Also, new trends in telehealth emerged, particularly during COVID-19, due to the move by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services(CMS) to expand access to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic so that patients could receive a variety of services without traveling to particular healthcare institutions (Wahezi et al.,2021,p.2). Increased accessibility to virtual services and a definition of numerical codes and reimbursement amounts for telehealth visits and audio-only assessment and management(E/M) services constitute the trends that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Wahezi et al.(2021,p.4), the trends emerged as a result of CMS signing various laws to aid offset the decreases in volumes of patient care and accessibility to healthcare services. Nevertheless, during the pandemic, telehealth services were provided in real-time engagement audio and video format and were paid akin to in-person hospital visits. Interestingly, audio-only visits were reimbursed at a decreased rate, incentivizing most pain medicine practitioners to extend the capability to execute audio or video visits. Wahezi et al.(2021,p.8) state that audio-video telehealth experiences, which were previously reimbursed less than those provided in-person, were reimbursed at a rate similar to in-person visits during the pandemic. Additionally, on March 1, 2020, CMS increased the reimbursement rates for the audio-only services from $46 to $110, matching the rates of in-person visits (Wahezi et al.,2021,p.8). As a result, this trend due to Covid-19 enables both audio-only and audio-video telehealth services to reimburse healthcare providers at a similar rate as in-person visits.
Also, the radical trends that emerged during the pandemic did not only influence patient care but also nursing practice. The United States was forced to change top-level policies to establish telehealth in nursing practice and education due to health protocols instituted by world governments. As a result, on March 19, 2020, quick care clinics were shut down in grocery stores to redeploy experienced and advanced nurses to attend to patients with respiratory problems, thus reducing the need for emergency and clinic facet in-person visits while solving patient’s healthcare needs(Wahezi et al.,2021,p.3). Also, some redeployed nurses operated as coordinators of ambulatory care and identified patients with high risk for exacerbation of chronic disease symptoms. Also, nursing professionals had to undergo professional training in the telecommunication technologies required for visual or audio delivery of appropriate care to comorbid individuals with chronic pain and addiction disorders. Summarily, this study has proved the potential benefits of telehealth in expanding nursing services and payment approaches, reinforcing nursing training, and developing cost-effective services.
References
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Singh, R. P., & Suman, R. (2021). Telemedicine for healthcare: Capabilities, features, barriers, and applications. Sensors International, 2, 100117.
Hood, L. (2018). Leddy & Pepper’s. Professional Nursing. Ninth edition. China.
Wahezi, S. E., Kohan, L. R., Spektor, B., Brancolini, S., Emerick, T., Fronterhouse, J. M., … & Kaye, A. D. (2021). Telemedicine and current clinical practice trends in the COVID-19 pandemic. Best Practice & Research Clinical Anaesthesiology, 35(3), 307-319.
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