Date on Paper

7-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Paper

Degree Name

D.N.P.

Department

Nursing

Committee Chair

Galloway, Lynette

Committee Member

Robertson, Sara

Author's Keywords

Homehealth; Telehealth; Evaluation; Hospitalization

Abstract

Background: Hospital readmissions are on the rise and continue to be a concern within healthcare due to their effects on the quality of care and healthcare costs. Telehealth strategies have been utilized across healthcare settings to improve hospital readmission rates.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a telehealth training program in increasing telehealth utilization rates and reducing the acute care hospitalization rate within a single home health agency.

Intervention: A 30-minute PowerPoint presentation on the definition of telehealth, goals, and benefits of telehealth, patient eligibility, special considerations for clinicians, billing and coding guidelines, documentation requirements, discussion with patients on telehealth usage, role-playing exercises, and a mock telehealth visit was conducted for all field clinicians after the mandatory patient care conference. Following the education session, an eight-month evaluation was completed to compare telehealth enrollment, utilization, and hospital readmission rates before and after the training.

Results: Telehealth enrollment significantly increased over the eight-month evaluation period, indicated by an increase from zero to 39 patients enrolled. The 60-day ACH rate decreased from 25.4% to 14.2% during the evaluation period, reaching statistical significance (p<.001)

Discussion: Implementing telehealth training is an effective way to increase telehealth utilization rates and decrease ACH rates within a home health setting.

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