| he purpose of this project was to improve healthcare access and outcomes for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients living at International Falls, MN with implementation, evaluation, and analysis of telehealth provided from Essentia Health, Duluth to Rainy Lake Medical Center, International Falls, MN. A team of telehealth staff was assembled which included licensed practical nurse (LPN), registered nurse (RN), nurse practitioner (NP), information technologist (IT), scheduler, and director of telehealth. Prospective analysis of healthcare access and outcomes (patient satisfaction, mortality rate, emergency room visit, and resource consumption) were conducted. Twenty CHF patients who used telehealth were compared with 18 CHF patients who did not use telehealth. In addition, the pre and post scores for the CHF patients who used telehealth was compared using Students' t-test analysis. The CHF patients who used telehealth will have healthcare access four times more than those who did not per year. It was found that the CHF patients who used telehealth had statistically significant increase in general satisfaction. Analysis of the resource consumption showed that the CHF patients who did not use telehealth spent... |
