Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion

Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion

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Technology continues to move at an accelerated pace, and the delivery of health care is shifting from office-based environments to the home. For this reason, health care organizations must be at technology’s cutting edge, in order to remain competitive in today’s environment. Integrating the daily activities of patients into the health care continuum will improve the quality of care that is provided and enable more holistic care.
This assignment provides an opportunity for you to develop an implementation plan that addresses the various factors critical to the successful deployment of the new or upgraded telehealth technology that was the focus of your previous assignments.

The Adequacy of Existing Telehealth Technology Infrastructure

There are several factors that are looked in to in determining the adequacy of the existing telehealth technology infrastructure in a healthcare organization. According to Gajarawala and Pelkowski (2021), it is important for this assessment to be done as it helps determine how these could impact the functionality of the new technology. One such factor is bandwidth availability. The current organization is a heavy consumer of internet and as it is currently, the existing bandwidth will likely be sufficient to support the implementation of telehealth services. Considerations of the fact that telehealth will require the use of video and audio communications for consultations have been made. The second aspect that need to be considered is system interoperability. Tsiouris et al. (2020) advised that there is a need for the current infrastructure to be compatible with the proposed implementation. In view of this, the organization infrastructure in place at the moment require upgrading because some of them are incompatible with the planned telehealth solution Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

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To a certain degree, the two systems can integrate with the identified differences being brought about by the fact that the new solution is advanced and requires new installations and changes in the old infrastructure. An evaluation conducted of the hardware and software requirements of the telehealth solution was done and it emerged that the new system requires new software to replace the existing and outdated one in place. However, some of the hardware in place such as the computer network systems will be maintained. Yet another factor that was made for the proposed implementation is network security. Closely reviewing the current system in place, appropriate security measures that protect patient privacy, data integrity, and confidentiality are in place. The current staff within the organization are generally ready and set for the new implementation. A necessary measure suggested by Bhat, Jain and Kumar (2021) is a need for staff training to make them better acquainted with the new system Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

Tasks And Responsibilities For New Telehealth Technology

To complete the implementation of the new telehealth technology calls for tasks and responsibilities to be assigned to specific individuals. With this in mind, the position of a project manager is necessary. According to Lum et al. (2020), a project manager is responsible for overseeing the deployment process. In this particular case, the PM will coordinate tasks, manage timelines, and make sure the project is implemented as planned. The second team in this process will be the IT team. The team will be tasked with making the technical setup. Importantly, the It team will participate in tasks such as setting up the telehealth software, configuring it with existing and newly installed hardware devices and lastly establishing network connectivity. The third group will be the procurement team. The new telehealth system will involve the procurement of new equipment such as computers, tablets, cameras, and microphones. It is the procurement team that will be tasked with managing this. Once the hardware is set up, the software developers in liaison with the IT team will jump in to implement the necessary software and to integrate core tasks. With the implementation completed, all that will be left will be staff education and training. This responsibility will be vested on a training coordinator. The training coordinator will, among other responsibilities, develop necessary training programs.

Implementation Schedule

In order to maintain continuity in the busy organization, a simultaneous implementation strategy will be used. Bhat, Jain and Kumar (2021) explain that such a strategy involves a new technology deployment while still maintaining the old technology on a transitional basis. This approach is important as it allows for a gradual transition and minimizes disruptions. In view of this, the telehealth implementation will involve a predetermined schedule. The first phase will be the pre-implementation preparation followed by the second phase which will be the assessment of existing infrastructure and identify necessary upgrades. The third will be the determination of the procurement of necessary hardware and software for the new system. The next phase will be staff training programs to acquaint them with the new technology and this will be closely followed by setting up of a pilot testing program. A key feature at this stage will be feedback gathering from internal stakeholders such as nursing teams and the administration. With necessary changes made in reaction to feedback and in a quest for continuous improvement, the penultimate phase will be deployed which is pilot testing and optimization. The final phase will be full implementation and complete transition Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

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Staff Training Requirements and Strategies

The first step here will be the identification of staff training needs and this primarily means to identify the staff members who require training depending or based on their roles and responsibilities. For example, healthcare professionals like physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and administrative staff involved in scheduling appointments, managing patient records, and providing support services will all require different forms and degrees of training. Once this is done, the next step will be the definition of how the various staff members will use the implemented telehealth technology. Tsiouris et al. (2020) explained that it is important that once a new system is implemented, that specific tasks and functions are assigned to different persons. In the case of the current organization, these include conducting virtual consultations, accessing patient records remotely and scheduling appointments. Under each of these, clear training objectives are set in ways that align with usage scenarios. In order for effective training to be facilitated, there will be need for comprehensive training materials to be prepared. Primarily, these materials should cover theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed for using the implemented telehealth technology. Equally important is for these training materials to be relayed in different forms such as online modules, video tutorials, user manuals, and job aids. Markert et al. (2021) suggested that when scheduling training sessions, these should be done before the actual implementation to allow staff sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the system. It is also important to recognize that in order for the training to be successful, pre and post-training assessments may be necessary as these would assess knowledge gain among the staff and determine how appropriate the training methods are.

Strategy for Collaborating with Patients and Other Health Care Providers

Research has shown that it is essential that a strategy de developed for collaborating with patients and other healthcare providers during implementation new technologies into the organization. One important consideration is to anticipate different reactions from end users especially patients and healthcare providers. Drawing from this, while certain individuals or groups might embrace the implemented telehealth technology with open arms, others must have a completely different attitude expressing reservations about the use of the new technology in healthcare. With this awareness, it is necessary that communication strategies are made beforehand and during the implementation process. The purpose of this is to mitigate these anticipated issues with emphasis placed on the benefits. In their article, Lum et al. (2020) wrote that there are numerous factors that inhibit the acceptance of the new technologies such as telehealth. Some of these are technological barriers like access to the internet or devices and low digital literacy. There is also the issue of resistance to change as some may be hesitant to adopt new technology influenced by fear, lack of familiarity or a general preference for traditional in-person interactions. Tsiouris et al. (2020) has also reminded healthcare organizations and professionals the need to consider the issue of workflow disruption.  In view of this, proactive strategies and support are required to help overcome this specific challenge Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

Post-Deployment Telehealth Technology Evaluation and Maintenance Strategy

The development of a post-deployment telehealth technology evaluation and maintenance strategy is vital because it ensures that there is continued effectiveness and efficiency of the implemented system. In view of this, there are several considerations required when developing this strategy. One, an assessment on how the implementation of telehealth technology affects workflows in the short and long term is required. This will involve evaluating changes in processes, resource allocation, and staff responsibilities (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021)Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion. In addition, an analysis of the impact on patient care is needed. This primarily includes improvements in access, quality, and efficiency. Then, feedback is gathered from healthcare providers and staff members to help understand the impact that the new implementation has on workflows. Once this is done, it becomes possible to identify the key areas that require improvement.

There will also me a measure to monitor the performance of the telehealth technology system and identify areas where the system is working well and where improvements are required. To gather this information, regular data will be conducted as a first step. The gathered data will enable the monitoring of key performance indicators. These include patient satisfaction, appointment wait times and clinician productivity. Importantly, these trends will be analyzed and compared with pre-implementation benchmarks. This will then be followed by feedback collection. It is necessary that healthcare providers, staff members, and patients are provided with feedback mechanisms. These are necessary for gathering insights on their experience with the technology. According to Markert et al. (2021)Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion, the feedback is used to identify strengths, weaknesses, and address any issues promptly.

Needless to say, ongoing maintenance for the new system will be required. Given this, there are a number of factors that will be necessary for ongoing maintenance and support. Firstly, there will be regular updates and upgrades. It is important for the users of the implemented system to stay updated with the current advancements in telehealth. This will be resourceful in ensuring that the system is regularly updated. Secondly, an ongoing technical support to address user questions will be needed. Other roles under this will be to troubleshoot issues. Thirdly, measures will be implemented to ensure the reliability and availability of the telehealth technology system. Encompassed in this are redundancy, backup solutions, and disaster recovery plans.

References

Bhat, K. S., Jain, M., & Kumar, N. (2021). Infrastructuring telehealth in (in) formal patient-doctor contexts. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW2), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3476064

Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013

Lum, H. D., Nearing, K., Pimentel, C. B., Levy, C. R., & Hung, W. W. (2020). Anywhere to anywhere: use of telehealth to increase health care access for older, rural veterans. Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(1), 12-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/prz030

Markert, C., Sasangohar, F., Mortazavi, B. J., & Fields, S. (2021). The use of telehealth technology to support health coaching for older adults: literature review. JMIR Human Factors, 8(1), e23796. https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/23796

Tsiouris, K. M., Gatsios, D., Tsakanikas, V., Pardalis, A. A., Kouris, I., Androutsou, T., … & Fotiadis, D. I. (2020). Designing interoperable telehealth platforms: bridging IoT devices with cloud infrastructures. Enterprise Information Systems, 14(8), 1194-1218. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2020.1759146 Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion

Guiding Questions

Implementation Plan

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the implementation plan assignment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise, an outlining tool, or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assignment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assignment. Do not turn in this document as your assignment submission Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

Completing the Implementation Plan

Assess the adequacy of existing telehealth technology infrastructure in your organization or practice setting.

• What factors will affect how well the new technology works and how it is perceived by end-users? For example, bandwidth and system interoperability.
• Will you need to upgrade existing hardware and software to accommodate the new technology?
• What changes will need to be made?

Assign tasks and responsibilities for deploying the new or upgraded telehealth technology.

• What tasks need to be completed and by whom?
• What tasks will you delegate and what tasks will you perform yourself?

Develop an implementation schedule.

• What approach will you take to implementation? For example, will you simply replace an old technology with the new one or deploy the new technology while the old technology remains in use for a time? Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion

Determine staff training requirements and strategies.

• Who needs to be trained? What are their roles with respect to the new technology?
• How will staff use the new technology?
• When should the training take place?
• How will you evaluate the training effectiveness?

Develop a strategy for collaborating with patients and other health care providers.

• How might end users react to the new technology?
• What factors might inhibit its acceptance?
• What leadership style will be needed to complete a project like this?

Develop a post-deployment telehealth technology evaluation and maintenance strategy.

• How are workflows affected over both the short and long term?
• How will you identify what is working and what is not working?
• What factors should you consider with regard to ongoing technology maintenance and support?

Support assertions, arguments, propositions, and conclusions with relevant and credible evidence.

• Integrate relevant and credible evidence from at least five peer-reviewed journals or professional industry publications.
• Is your supporting evidence clear and explicit?
  • How or why does particular evidence support a claim?
  • Will your reader see the connection?
• Did you summarize, paraphrase, and quote your sources appropriately?

Write clearly and concisely in a logically coherent and appropriate form and style.

• Write with a specific purpose and audience in mind.
• Adhere to scholarly and disciplinary writing standards and APA formatting requirements Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

Submission Reminders

• Is your chosen technology the best match for your organization or practice setting?
• Have you assessed the existing information technology (IT) infrastructure in your organization or practice setting?
• Have you assigned tasks and responsibilities for deploying the technology?
• Have you developed an implementation schedule?
• Have you determine staff training requirements and strategies?
• Have you developed a strategy for collaborating with patients and other health care providers?
• Have you developed a post-deployment technology evaluation and maintenance strategy?
• Is you plan well-supported by at least five sources of credible evidence?
• Is your implementation plan properly formatted and 5–7 pages in length, NOT including the title page and reference page?
• Have you proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract the reader and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your summary?Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion

Implementation Plan

Professional Context

Technology continues to move at an accelerated pace, and the delivery of health care is shifting from office-based environments to the home. For this reason, health care organizations must be at technology’s cutting edge, in order to remain competitive in today’s environment. Integrating the daily activities of patients into the health care continuum will improve the quality of care that is provided and enable more holistic care.

This assignment provides an opportunity for you to develop an implementation plan that addresses the various factors critical to the successful deployment of the new or upgraded telehealth technology that was the focus of your previous assignments Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion.

Scenario

Based on the positive reactions and feedback from stakeholders with regard to the proposed telehealth technology, executive leaders have decided to move forward with implementation of this telehealth solution and have asked you to develop the implementation plan.

Instructions

Develop a technology implementation plan that supports the vision for safe, high-quality health care in your organization or practice setting.

In addition, be sure to note the requirements below for document format and length and for citing supporting evidence.

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• Assess the adequacy of existing telehealth technology infrastructure in your organization or practice setting.
• Assign tasks and responsibilities for deploying the new or upgraded telehealth technology.
• Develop an implementation schedule.
• Determine staff training requirements and strategies.
• Develop a strategy for collaborating with patients and other health care providers.
• Develop a post-deployment telehealth technology evaluation and maintenance strategy.
• Support assertions, arguments, propositions, and conclusions with relevant and credible evidence.
• Write clearly and concisely in a logically coherent and appropriate form and style. Implementation Plan For Telehealth Technology Discussion