The need for still-image transfer during home nursing visits

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Services
• Telemedicine

Background:

• Home-care services are essential for elderly populations.
• Assessing the efficiency of current home-care models is crucial for resource optimization.
• The potential of digital health technologies in home care requires evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the home-care needs in Ikaalinen, Finland.
• To evaluate the necessity of general practitioner (GP) house calls versus digital image transfer.
• To determine the potential cost savings by reallocating non-nursing tasks.

Main Methods:

• Two nurses recorded data during 313 home visits over 17 weeks.
• Questionnaires were used to document visit reasons and required skill levels.
• Visits were categorized into service delivery, check-ups, drug services, tests, and nursing work.

Main Results:

• Digital image transfer was deemed unnecessary for GP consultations during home visits.
• 38% of home-care visits did not require nursing skills.
• Potential annual savings of FM240,000 were identified if non-nursing tasks were handled by home-help services.

Conclusions:

• Current home-care practices may include tasks not requiring skilled nursing.
• Optimizing service delivery by reallocating non-nursing tasks can lead to substantial cost efficiencies.
• Telemedicine, specifically image transfer, did not appear to be a necessary substitute for in-person GP visits in this context.