Are Patients Satisfied with Telehealth in Home Health Care? A Quantitative Research Study in Congestive Heart Failure Patients

Abstract

Study Background:The telehealth in home health care study aimed to determine patients' satisfaction with or without the use of telehealth technology in home health care.As the population continues to age and manage chronic disease, the use of tools such as telehealth assists the home health or visiting nurse to provide the best care and education to patients.Understanding patients' perceptions regarding telehealth technologies in home care allows the practitioner to further understand one's health belief and facilitate cues to changes in health behaviors toward management of chronic disease.The results of this study provide strength for the use of telehealth in home care and potentially contribute to the demand for reimbursement of telehealth.Methods: Patient satisfaction was examined in older adult patients with heart failure in home health care.Eighty-six participants ranging in ages 59-99 with a mean age of 80.7 (sd = 8.9), voluntarily completed a questionnaire (HCSSI-R) of fifteen items.A comparison was made between and telehealth home health services and usual home health care.To answer the research question regarding the difference in patient satisfaction for patients using either telehealth vs. usual home health services in patients diagnosed with heart failure; an analysis of covariance, frequency distributions and descriptive statistics were completed to answer the research question. Results:The dependent variable, total patient satisfaction score, was determined for the UHH group (n = 53), as 54.96 (sd = 5.2) and the TELE group (n = 33), as 56.94 (sd = 3.8).Furthermore, an independent t-test comparing the mean patient satisfaction scores of the UHH and TELE groups found a statistically significant difference between the two groups (t (81.469) = -1.991,p<0.05) indicating that the telehealth home health group was more satisfied.When controlling for the demographic information of age, gender, prior home health services and living alone status, there was no significant impact on the patient satisfaction score. Conclusion:It has been proven that telehealth in home care is cost-effective and produces favorable clinical outcomes in the management of chronic disease [1][2][3].This study concludes that telehealth in home health care provides for a highly satisfied home health client managing chronic disease thereby contributing to the call for use and reimbursement of telehealth in home health care.