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Governance and Safety Issues Surrounding Telehealth Addressed in Pioneering New GGI Report
Good Governance Institute launches first ever report to aid implementers on telehealth safety issues, providing recommendations and tools to assist implementation.
A new report from the Good Governance Institute (GGI), aimed at promoting the benefits of mainstreaming telehealth services and providing in-depth implementation guidance to Boards and senior decision makers, will be unveiled this week at the 2011 NHS Confederation conference.
The report, Better care for people with long-term conditions, highlights the challenges that currently exist in the healthcare sector and includes a set of detailed recommendations for healthcare commissioners, providers and policy makers to ensure those deploying telehealth services address critical governance, quality and safety issues.
More than 30 senior professionals from across the NHS and wider healthcare sector have contributed to the work, which is part of a growing series considering the issues surrounding better governance of healthcare organisations.
Key elements of the report are two Board Assurance Prompts (BAPs) and an auditor briefing document, specifically designed to aid telehealth project implementation, and provide Trust boards with the tools needed to ensure their programmes deliver safe, appropriate and efficient care.
The BAPs address telehealth deployment and the wider issue of long-term conditions management, offering a framework to help Trust boards meet the governance, quality and safety requirements that are fundamental to facilitating effective care at home. Powerful maturity indexes are included for assessment of progress and success.
An auditor briefing document has also been developed to allow local internal audit teams to understand the issues covered and reassure boards about telehealth implementation.
Andrew Corbett-Nolan, Chief Executive of the Good Governance Institute said: "We found that in the main, telehealth was being introduced as a cost containment tactic, rather than being seen as a strategically significant step that had implications across many of the longer-term aims of health economies. The report describes the significant shift in service thinking that will need to take place to meet care needs and how this technology has the potential to deliver a real breakthrough in service delivery, revolutionising patients' care pathways by empowering patients, reducing dependence on hospital based services and promoting continuity of care."
75% of NHS resources in England are dedicated to supporting over 15 million people with chronic conditions. This report provides guidance on implementing telehealth services to provide regular monitoring of long-term conditions, minimising emergency hospital admissions and delivering cost savings.
Dr. John Bullivant, Chair of the Good Governance Institute said: "Telehealth is not just the application of new technology to old service modalities but a revolutionising of the care pathway, and ultimately what it means to be a patient. It has the potential to provide more personalised care that genuinely empowers patients and produces outcomes that matter to those using services."
The report and supporting documents are available from http://www.good-governance.org.uk/better-care-for-people-with-long-term-conditions.htm
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