Question

You are a nurse practitioner in the Bridgeport hospital. A client is brought with a rare skin disease. The hospital has a telehealth link with the UConn Health Center where they have an expert dermatologist available. Describe and justify your steps to initiate a productive teleconference with the UConn Health Center. What backup options might be suitable for that purpose as well.

Task A2-2 (80p)

Describe at least 3 characteristics that define meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) by doctors or hospitals and how the issue of meaningful use of EHR has changed/modified over the last 3 years according to the Office of the National Coordinator for HealthCare Information Technology.

Answer 1

Telehealth

Healthcare facilitated by telecommunication technology.

Steps to initiate a productive Teleconference:

Teleconference is the live exchange of information among persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system , over telephone , video or other means. Telehealth is the healthcare facilitated by telecommunication technology. The general steps to initiate a productive Teleconference are:

* Make sure that the patient is aware about the teleconsultation and teleconference: Explain to the patient about the purpose and benefits teleconference. Check whether the patient is comfortable with teleconference or not.

* Follow the rules and regulations of HIPPA ( Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act).

* Before starting the conference check the efficiency of equipments involved in teleconference such as computers, network coverage, high quality webcam/ camera, headphones, speakers etc.

Close unnecessary programmes. if any logistic problem, work it on effectively, or keep a Telehealth technician for help.

* Room set up; Provide a noise free and calm environment with adequate lighting. Adjust the lighting , so that the Dermatologist can see the patient clearly.

* Have the phone number of the support team. The team should be easily accessible.

* Plan for appropriate back up for all equipment. Use tape library as solution for back up, that can automatically load / record the information. It can have a capacity of 800GB. Optical juke boxes, that can automatically load and unload optical disc also another way for back up . It is also called as optical disc libraries and it may have capacity of terabyte or petabyte storage.

Task A2

3 characteristics of meaningful use of EHR :

Meaningful use of Electronic Health Records means the use of Certified technology for EHR in a meaningful manner that ensure quality patient care. Electronic prescribing is a meaningful manner in using EHR. The healthcare providers must submit the information regarding the quality of care and the use of Certified EHR technology , to the Secretary of HHS ( Human and health services). Three characteristics of meaningful use of EHR are:

* Ensure adequate safety and security for Personal health information's privacy and the use of interoperable EHR.

* Reduce health disparities by improving safety , efficiency and quality of health services.

* Improve care Coordination among different discipline and also improve population and public health,by engaging individual and families in their health.

According to National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Technology, the issue of meaningful use of EHR has changed during the revent years, as Hospitals are adapting the use interoperable EHR in their healthcare record system. Under the HITECH act all healthcare settings adopted the incentivized EHR and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare ( CMC) helped the healthcare organisations by distributing the Federal fund for adopting the meaningful use of EHR throughout the healthcare system. Various programmes are implemented to solve the issues regarding the meaningful use of EHR , such as Health information Technology Extension programme, Beacon community programme, Strategic Health IT advanced Research programmes etc.