Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Develop a technology implementation plan that supports the vision for safe, high-quality health care in your organization or practice setting. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The implementation plan requirements, outlined below, correspond to the grading criteria in the Implementation Plan Scoring Guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. The Guiding Questions: Implementation Plan document, linked in the resources, provides additional considerations that may be helpful in completing your assessment. In addition, be sure to note the requirements below for document format and length and for citing supporting evidence. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

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• Assesses the adequacy of existing telehealth technology infrastructure in an organization or practice setting, and identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns, missing information, unanswered questions, or areas of uncertainty (where further information could improve the assessment).
• Assigns tasks and responsibilities for deploying a new or upgraded telehealth technology, including rationale and alternatives.
•  Develops an implementation schedule, including rationale and alternatives. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.
•   Determines staff training requirements and strategies, and identifies assumptions on which the determination is based.
•  Develops a strategy for collaborating with patients and other health care providers, and identifies assumptions on which the strategy is based.
•  Develops a post-deployment telehealth technology evaluation and maintenance strategy, and suggests criteria that could be used to evaluate the success of the initiative.
• Supports assertions, arguments, propositions, and conclusions with relevant, credible, and convincing evidence. Skillfully combines error-free source citations with a perceptive and coherent synthesis of the evidence.
•  Writes clearly and concisely in a logically coherent and appropriate form and style. Main points, ideas, arguments, or propositions are well-developed and engaging. Adheres to all applicable disciplinary and scholarly writing standards and conventions. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Document Format and Length

Format your implementation plan using APA style.

• Use the APA Style Paper Template, linked in the resources. An APA Style Paper Tutorial is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your implementation plan. Be sure to include:
  • A title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.
  • Appropriate level 1 section headings.
• Your implementation plan should be 5–7 pages in length, not including the title page and references page. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Supporting Evidence

Cite at least five credible sources from peer-reviewed journals or professional industry publications to support your implementation plan.

Additional Requirements

Proofread your implementation plan before you submit it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your plan. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Assessing the adequacy of the existing telehealth technology

Telehealth refers to the use of communication and digital technologies, such as smartphones, tablets and computers, to remotely access medical services and manage health care. They require active participation of patients who use them from home to maintain contact with medical in order to support and improve health care services (Tuckson, Edmunds & Hodgkins, 2017). The facility has adopted telehealth technology to achieve five objectives. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. Firstly, to provide support for health care self-management. Secondly, to improve care coordination and communication among medical personnel and the patient. Thirdly, to provide access to medical personnel. Fourthly to make medical services convenient and more readily available for patients with limited transport options, time and mobility. Finally, to improve health care accessibility for patients who live in isolated communities . Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

A large number of the patient population is unable to have face-to-face consults with medical personnel because they live in isolated communities and/or have limited transport options, time and mobility. Much of the care available to this population is triaged through community nurses and health workers with only the patients considered in need of critical medical services being transferred to see medical providers. This was the situation before the facility implemented a telehealth technology that was aimed at improving communication between medical personnel and patients. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. To be more precise, the facility implemented a remote monitoring system that included home monitoring and wearable devices that are linked to computer applications to measure, monitor and transmit health data to medical personnel at the facility. However, later evaluations have deemed the technology as flawed. The technology’s inadequacy is that it stands along and does not have an integrated platform that linked it to the electronic health records (EHR). An integrated telehealth technology is pertinent because it allows medical personnel to coordinate care within the EHR system. This is particularly important for patients who receive care in different facilities (Shull, 2019). Towards this end, the present implementation plan seeks to deploy a new telehealth technology that is integrated into the EHR system thereby allowing the facility to provide care to more patients while increasing its revenue without increasing the overhead cost. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Tasks and responsibilities for deploying the new telehealth technology

Implementing the new telehealth technology must consider a range of factors to include the opinions of stakeholders, expected performance, location, type and population. In this regard, the first step is to convene an implementation team that is responsible for making critical decisions about the technology implementation, assuming leadership and setting up direction for the plan. They provide the project oversite, facilitate routine meetings and communications, ensure that all relevant policies and procedures are followed, and coordinate process reviews. Also, they track staff satisfaction, work to get buy-in, address clinical needs, choose technology vendor, evaluate and select technology, and establish goals for telehealth implementation. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. The implementation team members include: the project manager; technology analyst responsible for data cleansing; technology developer responsible for customizing the technology; quality assurance test engineer responsible for testing and performance; physician and nurse advocates who advice on testing, data and training; meaningful use manager; and super users (Sittig, 2014). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

In addition, there are key individuals who should be involved in the implementation. Firstly, the technology administrator who is responsible for managing information access levels and security, establishing regular oversight of technology logs, and coordinating upgrades. Secondly, telehealth care managers who participate in data collection, communicate with the technology users, review data, and monitor the technology. Thirdly, marketing representative who collaborations with the team to identify the facility needs, provide demonstrations, offer system follow up, and resolve technology concerns. Fourthly, quality assurance personnel who integrates regulatory policies, provides improvement initiatives, tracks data, and measures outcomes (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Besides that, personnel at the facility will have some responsibilities with regards to the implementation. Firstly, information technology professionals will be responsible for handling technology maintenance and upgrades, managing testing and go-live, and assessing the hardware and software needs. Secondly, front office personnel whose responsibility is to confirm data exchange for other users, conduct data entry, document authorizations, document technology glitches and incompatibilities, and use and test the critical functions of the technology. Thirdly, office manager who is responsible for managing system training, identifying data reporting and conversion needs, overseeing integration with complementary software and legacy technology, and evaluating technology usability. Finally, nurses and other medication personnel who are responsibility for assessing the technology’s clinical usability, evaluating future clinical workflow descriptions and recommending changes (Saba & McCormick, 2015). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Implementation schedule

The implementation plan will be conducted over eight steps. The first step is to build the implementation roadmap/checklist that outlines the processes and tasks that need to be executed. The second step is to recruit the technology implementation team that includes persons sourced from key stakeholder groups. In addition, the decision will be made on whether or not to include an external consultant/specialist to assist with technology security assessment, testing and go-live activities, and user training and change management. The third step is to force cast the technology implementation costs and budget definition. The budget would include data storage and backups, consultancy feed, vendor training fees, customization consultancy from the vendor, and network and hardware upgrades. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. The fourth step is to schedule the technology implementation with a focus on adding timescales to the checklist created in the first step as well as all attributes of the project. The fifth step is migrating the data from the ‘old’ telehealth system to the ‘new’ telehealth system that is well formatted and integrated with the EHR system. This includes cleaning and verifying the data, setting up the database, mapping legacy data to the new database fields, transferring data to the new telehealth system, testing and verifying legacy data, and testing and verifying new data inputs (Ellis & Bach, 2015; Sittig, 2014). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The sixth step is to create a user training program that include: feedback loops to keep stakeholders in dialogue; role-based training that ensures relevancy; clear communication channels that engage the vendor support team; and super users who would act as program and system advocates. The seventh step is to clearly define the go-live activities that would become the new definition of telehealth use in the facility. The activities at this step include pre- and post-go-live technology testing processes, guidelines for communicating with patients, staff scheduling, reporting processes for project and system evaluation, communications, network reliability and speed checks, and data backup processes. The final step is defining the evaluation strategies and critical success factors to include: analyzing data error rates to assess data quality and input; surveying medical personnel satisfaction to assess user training and adoption; surveying patient satisfaction to assess care quality; record patient throughput to assess efficiency; and perform return on investment (ROI) calculations to assess profitability (Ellis & Bach, 2015; Sittig, 2014). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Staff training requirements and strategies

The technology training for users (medical personnel) will be conducted using a structured approach with five steps. The first step is to create a training timeline based on goals. The training is an ongoing process that extends beyond the initial project implementation. As such, the training will not end on the go-live date. In fact, as the technology is updated with new features being added, the users will require training on the updates and new features. The training will be designed to continually allow the users make the most out of the technology. In this regard, a training timeline will be established with milestones linked to goals involving how the technology is used. For instance, learning how log into the system on the first day, and learning how to input data on the second day (Lau & Kuziemsky, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The second step is to assessment the users’ skill levels and training needs. Assessing current skills levels and comfort with the technology is important as users will be transitioning from the initial technology to the new technology. Identifying the users training needs will help in delivering personalized training that facilitates faster progress in learning as it reduces confusion and focuses attention on the training. The implication is that the training will be based on what each user needs to know, rather than delivering a generalized training plan that wastes resources and time (Lau & Kuziemsky, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The third step is to identify the training team that is representative with all stakeholders involved. Having a representative with comprehensive understanding of the technology will help in providing additional training on the technology. This way, the personnel will have someone with a good understanding of the technology to reach out to as mentors who train inexperienced staff within their departments (Lau & Kuziemsky, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The fourth step is to apply a role-based training strategy that is centered around the practical application of the learned skills. This would have the trainees operate the telehealth system. This training strategy is considered approach because it is inexpensive, effective, identifies super-users, and identifies trainee weaknesses even before they begin using the technology (Lau & Kuziemsky, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

The final step is to identify the appropriate training curriculum. This entails matching the organization goals to telehealth use, and addressing user deficiencies that would prevent the goals from being achieved. The curriculum is built around the areas of need as identified from expert users’ survey data, recently added technology enhancements; operational efficiency training content; and widespread support questions (Lau & Kuziemsky, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Strategy for collaborating with patients and other health care providers

Ensuring that maximal value of the technology is derived in use for a sustained period of time is dependent on user engagement. There is a need to focus on educating the users and facilitating the technology use to boost satisfaction levels. For the facility, this means building a collaboration strategy for patients and other health care providers. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. In fact, collaboration allows for productive interaction and engagement to accelerate decision-making, enhance business processes, and increase efficiency. The specific strategy will entail using a suite of social tools that include shared workspaces, profiles, blogs, wikis and instant messaging. These tools act as a repository for knowledge and resource to help build relationships and share knowledge. They help to foster a sharing culture and enable a simple way of communication by enabling users to share and distribute information with others to include screen sharing, webinars, video conferencing, online meeting, instant messaging, emails and documents (Anders, 2016). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.

Post-deployment telehealth technology and maintenance strategy

Determining the right maintenance strategy for the telehealth technology is important for reducing unplanned interventions and associated losses such as when the system breaks down. The chosen maintenance strategy involves applying a four-step process. The first step is to established a dedicated maintenance multidisciplinary team that has autonomy to think freely and properly execute their work. The second step is to have the team establish a critical analysis framework that defines the different technology problems based on failure rate, severity consequence and probability. Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan. This helps in evaluating, categorizing and prioritizing the technology maintenance necessities. The third step is to develop a maintenance and repair strategy that includes steps for detecting technology problems, need for prevention and maintenance, and steps to take when the technology breaks down. The strategy should include decision matrices for technology run to failure, redesign/enhancement, proactive maintenance, predictive maintenance, and preventive maintenance. The final step is to routinely update the strategy based on monitoring results for completeness and effectiveness. The identified process ensures that a sensible and dynamic strategy is applied that extends the life of the technology and maximizes its value (Sittig, 2014). Telehealth Technology Implementation Plan.