![]() Members of rural communities tend to have lower life expectancies and are generally sicker than urban populations. Īccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telehealth could be a transformative public health tool because of its ability to reach rural populations by increasing access to much needed care. Making healthcare and information easier to access can help alleviate some of the stress associated with current healthcare barriers which prevent or limit access and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telehealth could be a transformative public health tool because of its ability to reach rural populations by increasing access to much needed care. Telehealth has many forms which includes but are not limited to computers, mobile phones and wearable devices. Telehealth is an emerging technology that can help to address the physical, mental, and social well -being of rural populations, caregivers and providers. The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ![]() Good care delivery can only happen when healthcare care organizations acknowledge that there is a symbiotic relationship between care delivery, healthcare workers and caregiver’s health and wellbeing. Talley and John highlighted the notion that caregiving was an emerging public health issue and that the health and well-being of care givers should be considered as an important part of the healthcare ecosystem asserting that care givers are an integral part of patient care. This measure leaves out the health and well-being of those very individuals who are providing direct and indirect patient care. Currently, healthcare facilities are incentivized by CMS to provide high quality care and a key metric of this is patient satisfaction. The proposed fourth arm of the IHI triple aim chiefly focuses on the satisfaction of healthcare workers. Healthcare leaders and policy makers will need to quickly adopt new technological interventions like telehealth to help meet the CMS Meaningful measures initiatives and the Health and Human Services (HHS) Healthy People 2020 goals of achieving health equity, reducing health disparities, and reducing premature deaths in a systematic way which will lead to healthier healthcare ecosystems and improved population health. The Quadruple Aim is a concept that furthers the Institute of Healthcare improvements (IHI) Triple Aim which consists of 3 principles -improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care. The fourth aim examines the importance of provider satisfaction concurrently with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) quality metric of patient satisfaction. These improved relationships can be linked to the 4th arm of the Triple Aim more recently referred to as the Quadruple Aim. ![]() Telehealth presents unique opportunities to connect providers with patients and to improve patient and provider relationships. Technologies include video conferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications”. “Telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. ![]() Health Care Providers Residing in Rural and Urban Areas, found a greater representation of workers with less education and training living in rural areas and highlights data showing less than 8% of all physicians and surgeons choose to practice in rural settings. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis of the Distribution of U.S. Healthcare workforce shortages are prevalent throughout rural America. Telehealth Quadruple aim Healthcare services Rural populationsĪccess to adequate healthcare services for rural populations can be looked upon as a Public Health crisis, which is expected to worsen over the coming years as access continues to wane due to healthcare facility closures, lack of transportation and healthcare workforce shortages.
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