Document Type
Poster
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Publication Date
4-7-2020
Keywords
telehealth
Disciplines
Health and Medical Administration | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and the quality of care that patients receive from telehealth services compared to face-to-face interactions. A review of the literature revealed that while telehealth services usually deliver patients high-quality care, there are also many concerns surrounding the accuracy of prescriptions and diagnoses for certain conditions. Literature supports that patients and clinicians alike have been warned regarding the potential dangers of telehealth. Prescribing medications remotely in the absence of additional clinical information can lead to further health problems. This study explores the validity of these concerns by analyzing telehealth interactions involving antibiotic prescriptions, asthma, thermal burns, mental health counseling, facial paralysis, and other scenarios where the reliability of telehealth has been called into question. Factors considered when comparing the effectiveness of telehealth and face-to-face interactions include technology capabilities, strength of doctor-patient relationships, medical records/patient history availability to providers, and the accuracy of patients' descriptions of their conditions. Effectiveness of care received was analyzed statistically through surveys measuring self-reported patient satisfaction as well as both the short-term and long-term health of patients following the interaction. The findings of this study revealed that while telehealth is a highly effective tool for certain cohorts of patients due to the time and money savings, certain specialties of medicine are neither properly prepared nor equipped to effectively use telehealth without harming the quality of care provided to their patients.
First Advisor
Jewel Goodman Shepherd
Second Advisor
Mary DeVany
Research Area
Health Services Administration
Recommended Citation
Doom, Mary and Nordseth, Tanner, "Quality of Care Discrepancies between Telehealth Services and Face-to-Face Interactions" (2020). IdeaFest. 7.
https://red.library.usd.edu/idea/7