310 research outputs found
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Caregiver Satisfaction with a Video Telehealth Home Safety Evaluation for Dementia
Full text linkFamily caregivers are vital to telehealth-delivered dementia care. The objective of this mixed methods descriptive study conducted in the VA Bedford Healthcare System was to examine caregiver satisfaction with a video telehealth dementia home safety occupational therapy evaluation. Ten caregivers of Veterans with dementia participated. Ratings of caregiver satisfaction, measured by nine Likert scale items including ability to see and hear, were examined in relation to person and visit-related contextual factors extracted from RA field notes, to develop an in-depth understanding of caregiver experience. Person factors included caregiver age and gender and Veteran cognitive status. Visit-related contextual factors included occurrence of technical glitches. Caregiver visit satisfaction was overall positive, with exceptions related to technological glitches and the presence of the person with dementia during the visit. Veteran cognitive status appeared to influence caregiver satisfaction. Implications of the study are that proactively addressing technical glitches and incorporating dementia stage-specific approaches may optimize caregivers’ telehealth experience.
Health Care Practitioners’ Determinants of Telerehabilitation Acceptance
Full text linkBackground: Pulmonary rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary patient-tailored intervention that aims to improve the physical and psychological condition of people with chronic respiratory diseases. Providing pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) services to the growing population of patients is challenging due to shortages in health care practitioners and pulmonary rehabilitation programs. Telerehabilitation has the potential to address this shortage in practitioners and PR programs as well as improve patients’ participation and adherence. This study’s purpose was to identify and evaluate the influences of intention of health care practitioners to use telerehabilitation. Methods: Data were collected through a self-administered Internet-based survey. Results: Surveys were completed by 222 health care practitioners working in pulmonary rehabilitation with 79% having a positive intention to use telerehabilitation. Specifically, perceived usefulness was a significant individual predictor of positive intentions to use telerehabilitation. Conclusion: Perceived usefulness may be an important factor associated with health care providers’ intent to use telerehabilitation for pulmonary rehabilitation
Parent Perspectives of an Occupational Therapy Telehealth Intervention
Full text linkOccupational therapy services delivered via telehealth can support families of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in everyday routines such as mealtime, bedtime, and play. The aim of the current study was to understand the lived experiences of parents who participated in a 12-week, telehealth-delivered occupational therapy intervention (Occupation-Based Coaching). We used semi-structured interviews and subsequent thematic content analysis to understand how parents perceived the mechanism of service delivery (i.e., videoconferencing) and the content of the intervention. Themes that emerged from the data included Compatibility with Everyday Life, Collaborative Relationship, and Parent Empowerment. Parents expressed how telehealth fit within their daily lives, how telehealth supported a collaborative relationship with the occupational therapist, and how the content of the intervention built a sense of empowerment
Report on the Use of Telehealth in Early Intervention in Colorado: Strengths and Challenges with Telehealth as a Service Delivery Method
Full text linkThe use of telehealth as a service delivery method for early intervention (EI) is in its infancy and few studies have examined its use within the context of a statewide program. The focus of this report was to determine the factors that influence providers’ utilization of telehealth in Colorado’s Part C Early Intervention program (EI Colorado). This report presents information that was gathered through surveys sent to Part C program administrators, service coordinators, providers, and caregivers. Surveys were used to understand perceptions of telehealth, actual experiences with telehealth, and perceived benefits and challenges using this service delivery method. Follow-up focus groups were conducted with program administrators and family members to gather more nuanced information. Participants identified several benefits associated with telehealth including its flexibility, access to providers, and more family engagement. The primary barriers included access to high speed internet and the opinion that telehealth was not as effective as in-person treatment. The results in the report served to identify next steps in the implementation of telehealth in Colorado’s Part C EI program.
A Telehealth Privacy and Security Self-Assessment Questionnaire for Telehealth Providers: Development and Validation
Full text linkBackground: Telehealth is a great approach for providing high quality health care services to people who cannot easily access these services in person. However, because of frequently reported health data breaches, many people may hesitate to use telehealth-based health care services. It is necessary for telehealth care providers to demonstrate that they have taken sufficient actions to protect their patients’ data security and privacy. The government provided a HIPAA audit protocol that is highly useful for internal security and privacy auditing on health care systems, however, this protocol includes extensive details that are not always specific to telehealth and therefore is difficult to be used by telehealth practitioners.Objective: The goal of this study was to develop and validate a telehealth privacy and security self-assessment questionnaire for telehealth providers. Methods: In our previous work, we performed a systematic review on the security and privacy protection offered in various telehealth systems. The results from this systematic review and the HIPAA audit protocol were used to guide the development of the self-assessment questionnaire. The draft of the questionnaire was created by the research team and distributed to a group of telehealth providers for evaluating the relevance and clarity of each statement in the draft. The questionnaire was adjusted and finalized according to the collected feedback and face-to-face discussions by the research team. A website was created to distribute the questionnaire and manage the answers from study participants. A psychometric analysis was performed to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire.Results: There were 84 statements in the draft questionnaire. Five telehealth providers provided their feedback to the statements in this draft. They indicated that a number of these statements were either redundant or beyond the capacity of telehealth care practitioners, who typically do not have formal training in information security. They also pointed out that the wording of some statements needed to be adjusted. The final released version of the questionnaire had 49 statements. In total, 31 telehealth providers across the nation participated in the study by answering all the statements in this questionnaire. The psychometric analysis indicated that the reliability of this questionnaire was high. Conclusion: With the availability of this self-assessment questionnaire, telehealth providers can perform a quick self-assessment on their telehealth systems. The assessment results may be used to identify possible vulnerabilities in telehealth systems and practice or demonstrate to patients the sufficient security and privacy protection to patients’ data