Promoting Telemedicine in Massachusetts - Essay Example

Promoting Telemedicine in Massachusetts Location: Table of Contents Introduction 3 PromotingTelemedicine in Massachusetts 3 Conclusion 7 References List 9 Introduction In the contemporary world, use of telemedicine has gained huge popularity, owing to its ability to foster development in the field of medicines and challenge the medical complications underlying provision of healthcare services to people. In this regard, it is noteworthy that telemedicine encompasses the use of sophisticated tools and techniques, which carry high level of costs. However, they are able to deliver the required services to customers. With respect to the aforementioned context, this study will be aimed towards gaining an understanding on the role of implementing telemedicine in fostering provision of services to the minority communities based in the state of Massachusetts. Moreover, the study would highlights the economic, social and economic factors pertaining to the implementation of medical services in the state and feasibility of the policy in providing healthcare services. Promoting Telemedicine in Massachusetts As per the viewpoints of lawmakers in Massachusetts, telemedicine involves the use of interactive electronic media for diagnosis, consultation as well as treatment of patients (Seeman, Hartmam, & Daihua, 2014). Telemedicine is considered as one of the most debated topics these days, owing to which the governor has shown strong intentions to adopt telemedicine towards ensuring that patients have improved access to healthcare. Existence of several disparities in the state’s healthcare services framework have led towards unequal access to health services among the people in need of medical treatment (Chin, Walters, Cook, & Huang, 2007). Hence, with respect to the aforementioned scenario, this particular study intends to assess the question of whether the governor’s adoption of telemedicine policy would ensure equal access to healthcare services for public in Massachusetts. Working towards elimination of disparities in health care systems is considered as one of the most prominent challenges in the deliverance of healthcare facilities to people. Moreover, in this regard, it is worth mentioning that the challenges associated with working towards elimination of disparities in healthcare are not restricted to the state of Massachusetts, but can also be observed in the wider American society (Brondolo, Gallo, & Myers, 2009). The disparities underlying provision of healthcare services to people are manifested with the lack of quality health care prevalent amongst the marginalized communities in the state of Massachusetts. In a majority of the cases, provider-patient relationships are influenced by attitudes as well as behavior of parties involved, thereby affecting the quality of services rendered. For instance, existence of lack of trust amongst the patients and healthcare professionals play a significant role in enhancing delays associated with seeking health care services or avoidance of screening by the patients from the minority groups. A majority of the members belonging to the minority groups are unable to establish and retain trust while interacting with the white service providers serving the healthcare sector. This can be regarded as another important challenge associated with one to one consultations in provision of quality health care to the marginalized communities. Transportation of senior officials and inability of people with disabilities to access local or long distance medical appointments is considered as another major challenge facing provision of universal healthcare (Bacsu, Jeffrey, Johnson, Martz, Novik, & Abonyi, 2012). Despite the availability of healthcare transportation services in the state of Massachusetts, it may be cumbersome to transport healthcare affected people to long distances that for facilitating Medicare services. Consequently, efforts are continuously being made by various stakeholders towards ensuring unbiased admittance to healthcare services for all people in the city of Massachusetts requiring medical healthcare. With respect to the aforementioned statement, it is worth mentioning that healthcare providers, hospitals, legislators and policy makers are aware of the existence of such discrepancies and that they must concentrate on elimination the same in order to ensure that the needed have access to healthcare services. . The city of Boston, commonwealth of Massachusetts and the American Medical Association (AMA) are among some of the major stakeholders, who have devoted a considerable amount of resources towards ensuring identification of cause of such disparities and have further laid strong emphasis on the development of solutions pertaining to addressing the discrepancies (Miller, 2007). In this regard, it must be noted that as an exemplary organization, the medical community in Massachusetts has increasingly gaining awareness of the importance of cross-cultural education to health care providers for deploying healthcare services in the state. Due attention needs to be provided on the viewpoints pertaining to individual members within the minority communities avoiding healthcare services as a result of distrust, since changes introduced in the healthcare system towards facilitating healthcare services can be accepted or rejected by them. Moreover, existence of distrust and attitudinal issues resulting from one to one encounter must be considered as the topmost priority as the legislators work towards solving the problems at hand. Additionally, the impact of utilizing visual telecommunications is another important matter that must be identified and acknowledged, owing to the fact that the problem of attitude may arise on a repeated basis, in case one is able to identify that the is consulting a medical professional belonging to an entirely different racial community. In the course of implementing the telemedicine policy towards ensuring achievement of equitable healthcare services for all citizens, a number of available alternatives must be taken into consideration by the legislators. Moreover, in order to ensure acceptance and adoption of telemedicine technology by the minority communities; it is important to involve medical service providers in the development of telemedicine options for specific diseases (Bates & Bitton, 2010). Moreover, the advantage of involving medical service providers in development of telemedicine options is that the implementation of healthcare services will face less resistance from service providers, considered as one of the key stakeholders. However, implementation of this option is time-consuming in nature since divergent views might result in lengthy discussions, thereby converting the whole process into mere rhetoric, especially when a uniform solution is not attained. Since, attitudinal problems might arise even in case the state adopts telemedicine; hence, there is need for the state government to incorporate cross-cultural education, which would enable the government of the state of Massachusetts to foster knowledge of healthcare amongst patients and service providers. Although, the aforementioned option might be costly and time consuming in nature, however, it provides an advantage of shaping the attitudes of both parties towards fostering cooperation (Bates & Bitton, 2010). In relation to the aforementioned factors, it is worth mentioning that there is a need to incorporate training within the healthcare systems with the aim of imparting the required knowledge and skills to both healthcare service providers and patients on how to use telecommunication equipment. Offering quality healthcare training is crucial, especially when installed equipment encompasses several features that are highly sophisticated and complex in nature and beyond the knowledge of healthcare users and medical practitioners. Simplification of such equipment can also provide a significant advantage to both parties, since it would enable in providing access to healthcare services to the service users. On the contrary, offering education to the masses can be very costly for the government and economically not viable in nature. A lot of resources involving cost, time and efforts are required in order to pay the curriculum developers and specialists, engaged in educating members of society on utilizing of healthcare equipment’s. However, the alternative can be both politically and economically feasible in nature upon achievement of training objectives (Bates & Bitton, 2010). This is because telemedicine applications are cost-effective and help in improving the continuity of healthcare services to patients who can easily adopt the sophisticated technology. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that is better to integrate cross-cultural education with healthcare training on the use of telecommunication equipment and applications. Moreover, the strategy will solve the concerns associated with confidentiality of the information shared between patients and physicians on the media. Although the option is costly in nature, however, it can play an important role in improving the t=needs of health care providers as gatekeepers of telemedicine access. Additionally, the legislators can also play an important role in facilitating telemedicine access, considering the cumbersome nature of dealing with patients through online media. Hence, there is a need to incorporate changes in terms of reimbursement. Improved remuneration will encourage the medical service providers to adopt the technology and adhere to the ethics of utilizing media in health management issues. Hence, the whole process of educating the stakeholders faces a major challenge pertaining to costs, time and efforts, which might make implementation economically and politically non-viable (Bates & Bitton, 2010). Conclusion In order to ensure implementation of the medical services to the fullest, it is important for the state of Massachusetts to embark on educating stakeholders on the use of telemedicine machines and applications. This can be considered as a primary requirement in the process for implementation of medical services, since it enables shaping the attitudes of stakeholders towards ensuring appropriate application of the technology. Despite the existence of flaws, this option must be taken while considering the proposition for all the concerned parties possessing necessary skills and competencies towards ensuring appropriate utilization of the telemedicine applications. The incorporation of cross-cultural education will improve trust among various minority communities and would further enable promotion of tolerance. Additionally, the privacy concerns can be tackled by way of promoting confidence between the patients, doctors and nurses. References List Bacsu, J. R., Jeffrey, B., Johnson, S., Martz, D., Novik, N., & Abonyi, S. (2012). Healthy aging in place: Supporting rural seniors’ health needs. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, Vol. 12, No. 2,pp. 77-87. Bates, D. W., & Bitton, A. (2010). The future of health information technology in the patient-centered medical home. Health Affairs, Vol..29, No. 4, pp. 614-621. Brondolo, E., Gallo, L. L., & Myers, H. F. (2009). Race, racism and health: disparities, mechanisms, and interventions. Journal of behavioral medicine, Vol. 32, No. 1,, pp.1-8. Chin , H. M., Walters , A. E., Cook, S. C., & Huang, E. S. (2007). Interventions to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Medical Care Research and Review, Vol. 64, No. 5,, pp. 7-28. Miller, E. A. (2007). Solving the disjuncture between research and practice: telehealth trends in the 21st century. Health Policy, Vol. 82, No. 2, pp. 133-141. Seeman, K. D., Hartmam, L. M., & Daihua, X. Y. (2014). When Cutting Edge Technology Meets Clinical Practice: Ethical Dimensions of e-Health. In Emerging Pervasive Information and Communication Technologies (PICT) , pp. 101-147. Read More