Question

Prepare paper using a minimum of three scholarly references that looks at a program provided by the U.S. Public Health Service. You may select a program provided by the federal health department (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), the state health department, or your local health department. Many times, the programs or services are funded at the national level, but administered and funded at the state and local level.

Describe the public health program you have selected in terms of the services offered, who is eligible, and how it is funded. Lastly, discuss how the success of this program is measured within the health department. Your state and local health department websites are valuable resources for this paper.

Answer 1

With the evolution and advancement of technology, telemedicine has emerged as the future of the healthcare sector. The concept of telemedicine has been incorporated by the federal government in the healthcare sector to make healthcare services accessible and available to patients, at any desired time and even to remotest locations. The key technologies or infrastructure, which facilitate the practice of telemedicine are:

• Remote patient monitoring devices
• 24*7 access to technical support staff
• Access to fast broadband internet with considerable bandwidth
• Imaging peripherals

Anyone can be considered to be eligible for the telemedicine program. However usually this program caters to the following set of people:

• People living in remote locations
• People living in rural locations
• People requiring bed rest and want to have such facility at home
• People who need to be under constant monitoring but they prefer to stay at home

The funding for telemedicine is both public and private ownership. Telemedicine works with the objective of providing healthcare facilities and services, even to the remotest locations. The federal and state government issue grants to facilitate this program. Moreover the healthcare provide also allocates separate funds to this program, to ensure its smooth functionality.

The roadblocks, which can restrict the adoption of telemedicine as a viable option for healthcare services, are:

• Inadequate funds to establish the infrastructure for telemedicine
• The provision of access physicians who can visit the patients in remote area may discourage health care providers from adopting telemedicine practices
• Threat of patient data security and privacy rights violation
• Fragmented regulations in establishing the effectiveness of telemedicine
• Non reliable broadband services of the area

The legal issues associated with telemedicine are:

• Licensure
• Tele-prescribing under Haight Act
• Reimbursement issues
• Privacy concerns and Confidentiality

The ways in which the risks associated with telemedicine can be mitigated are:

• Proper fund allocation must be done for the telemedicine setup
• Designing the telemedicine platform as a HIPAA compliant platform so that its coverage and acceptability is wide
• Data transfer channels must be made well protected so as to inhibit any malwares or malicious attacks

The success of this program can be evaluated in 2 ways. One way is the traditional financial way in which the return on investment of the program is measured. Another way is to track the effectiveness of this program by taking direct feedback from the primary stakeholders. This can be a great way to identify and solve the pain points of the patients and their families, from this program.

References:

• Telemedicine and Rural HealthCare by S Anthony C
• Telemedicine by T S Nesbitt
• Telemedicine today: the state of affairs by A Montgomery