EVALUATION OF A TELEHEALTH INITIATIVE IN WOUND MANAGEMENT

摘要

Interior Health is faced with several challenges related to wound management, these include lengthy wait times to access the specialist, extensive traveling involved and lack of continuity of information throughout the continuum of care. To address these challenges a Telehealth pilot project was launched in May 2004 and its evaluation completed in February 2005. The evaluation showed the following key strengths: · Clients acceptance of this approach to wound care service delivery · A high degree of staff satisfaction using the software as a tool to improve the quality of wound management in the community · Efficient use of resources, allowing for increased access to the wound care specialist · Support of best practices in the use of products The following recommendations were made in regards to expanding this system throughout Interior Health: · Create a Steering Committee with representation from across Interior Health. · Project management should be addressed at 2 levels - clinical and technical. · Create a clinical working group with representation of the wound specialists and community nurses. · Use a phased approach to roll this out across Interior Health.