The cost of healthcare has dramatically increased over the years. From early 1960, the cost of health care was valued at $27.2 billion, and in almost just half a century later, this value increased to $3.5 trillion (Amadeo, 2019). Individually, annual health care cost in 1960 was only $146 per person, while each person spends at least $10,739 a year in health care in 2017 (Amadeo, 2019). Valuing inflation and other factors into consideration, the increase in the cost of health care is very overwhelming not only for the government but also for individuals. An article published in May 2019 identified two significant reasons for the dramatic increase in the cost of health care—government policies and change in lifestyle (Amadeo, 2019). This trend affected the quality of healthcare as more and more people cannot afford medical treatment, thus raising mortality and morbidity rates. At this point, hospitals and the members of the healthcare profession deemed it necessary to identify the factors that contributed to the problem and find means to resolve the issue as promptly as possible. In 2011, a case study analysis on the challenges that confront Bisbee's Copper Queen Community Hospital (CQCH) was evaluated ("Telemedicine Technology Solves Healthcare Disparity"). The highlight of the problem was growing the cost of health care and the downhill quality of care provided by the hospital because of the absence of in-house specialist to attend to patients with serious medical emergencies like cardiovascular problems. According to the study, many patients who require specialized treatment are sent to other hospitals, which is quite a distance from CQCH because the said facility does not have the means to address these severe conditions. However, this solution is not always practical. Aside from the fact that transporting patients to a different hospital is costly, it also consumes a lot of time, which is considered very critical from severe medical emergencies. Only to find out that in some of the cases, transporting the patient may not be necessary.
The solution that Bisbee's Copper Queen Community Hospital and its CEO, James Dickson, came up with was to partner with GlobalMedia, a telemedicine solution provider. The goal was to hook CQCH with hospitals from Tucson and Phoenix, who has better medical facilities and highly specialized experts in the field of cardiology through a telecardiology system. This system will allow CQCH to immediately connect with these large hospitals in case of heart-related medical emergencies. This system facilitates for live video conferencing technology that enables specialists to assess patients and render their diagnosis without having to move the patient to a different location or transport the patient from one hospital to another just to be evaluated. With this technology, the hospital and the patient save enormous amount of money needed for transportation and extended hospital stay, while at the same time saving valuable time which is often very critical for these exceptional medical cases.
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Critical Analysis: Practicality and Effectiveness of Telemedicine
Telemedicine is an innovative technique implemented in several hospitals worldwide. About 90% of leaders in the US started offering telemedicine program in their organization (Lacktman & Vernaglia, 2014). This technology allows doctors to evaluate their patients and render their prognosis without physically seeing the patient face-to-face, except for video conferencing. Telemedicine is a technology that involves the use of hardware, software, and services that enables the physician to perform the necessary medical diagnostic procedure that would allow them to render the proper diagnosis. In the case study that involved Bisbee's Copper Queen Community Hospital (CQCH), it showed that patients and insurers were able to save at least $540,000, which is typically charged for transporting patient and additional hospital stay ("Telemedicine Technology Solves Healthcare Disparity," 2011).
The authors of the research study in 2011 on Telemedicine Technology Solves Healthcare Disparity established good points with the introduction and implementation of telemedicine in rural and remote hospitals like CQCH. It is indeed true that the cost of health care is becoming more and more expensive for people. As a result, mortality and morbidity rate dramatically increases. It was found that approximately 75% of emergency room visits, urgent care, and consultations are unnecessary as these instances can quickly be resolved and managed either through phone or video conference (Wood, 2016). This additional expense could be avoided with telemedicine technology.
Furthermore, looking beyond the cost, the most significant contribution of this medical innovation relates to the number of lives saved because of the time managed adequately by not having to subject the patient to the ordeal of transporting from one location to another, and the amount of time saved by merely applying the necessary treatment. It should be remembered that time is an essential factor in medical emergencies. Delayed treatment can cause severe and irreversible damage or even death in some extreme cases. Transporting patients to a different facility can be time-consuming. The lost time traveling can already be used to conduct the proper diagnosis and render the appropriate treatment.
While there may be some, who cannot see the merit in the use of telemedicine because they lack faith in the absence of the actual physical assessment, the need to explain the technology to people can help overcome this issue. As mentioned earlier, telemedicine does not only rely on the service, which involved the physician seeing the patient in a monitor. This technology also uses hardware and software specially designed to perform the diagnostic procedures that are commonly performed manually. Furthermore, there will also be a member of the medical team who will be attending to the patient. The specialist, who is on the other end of the line will be giving out the instruction that will be performed and executed by the medical professional attending to the patient who may be a general practitioner, a paramedic or a nurse. The specialist can review the assessments and the results of the diagnostic evaluations performed by the attending healthcare provider. There are also hardware and software that allows the specialist from another location to personally evaluate vital statistics like heartbeat and heart rhythms through specialized hardware and software that provides accurate results.
There are a lot of people who can benefit from this technology. Patients, their families, the members of the healthcare team, insurers, and the government can all benefit from telemedicine. Aside from the savings from unnecessary expenses, the quality of health and wellbeing is significantly improved with this technology. However, it is not suggested that people ignore seeing a specialist face-to-face. There are still urgent cases that require seeing a specialist and going through the entire process of securing medical treatment. In-doctor visits are still crucial because situations that require surgery and prompt medical intervention cannot be done by just any medical professional. Thus, the use of telemedicine varies from cases to cases. Only the specialist can determine such instances which can save a person’s life.
Conclusion
Overall, the article offered a clear picture of the benefits of telemedicine to society. Telemedicine is a practical and effective solution to the growing problem of increasing the cost of health care. At the same time, this technology helps improve the status of health care services, especially in remote areas where the availability of specialized medical services is not readily accessible to the people. This article offers informative public insights on the merits and the process involved in telemedicine, which could shed some light to any misunderstandings about the system.
References
Amadeo, K. (2019). See for Yourself If Obamacare Increased Health Care Costs. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-rising-healthcare-costs-4064878
Lacktman, N., & Vernaglia, L. (2014). 2014 Telemedicine Survey Executive Summary. Retrieved from https://www.foley.com/en/insights/publications/2014/11/2014-telemedicine-survey-executive-summary
Telemedicine Technology Solves Healthcare Disparity. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.emsworld.com/article/10373540/telemedicine-technology-solves-healthcare-disparity
Wood, M. (2016). Telemedicine to attract 7M patient users by 2018 — 12 statistics on the thriving market. Becker's Hospital Review . Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/telemedicine-to-attract-7m-patient-users-by-2018-12-statistics-on-the-thriving-market.html
