Home telehealth: patient satisfaction, program functions, and challenges for the care coordinator.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Health Services Research
• Digital Health

Background:

• Home telehealth programs are expanding to improve healthcare access for older adults.
• Assessing the true effectiveness of these programs is difficult due to patient reluctance to provide negative feedback.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather accurate patient perspectives on the benefits and challenges of the Veterans Health Administration's (VA) care coordination/home telehealth program.
• To identify key program functions and components that are most impactful or problematic for patients.

Main Methods:

• Patients who completed a standard satisfaction survey were interviewed.
• Interview transcripts underwent content analysis to identify salient program functions and challenging components.

Main Results:

• Interviews corroborated high survey satisfaction ratings but uncovered uncaptured challenges.
• Key benefits included improved access, patient education, and health monitoring.
• Significant challenges involved equipment malfunctions and issues with care coordinator accessibility and response times.

Conclusions:

• Home telehealth offers significant benefits for older adults, particularly in access and monitoring.
• Addressing technical issues and improving care coordinator communication is crucial for optimizing patient experience and program effectiveness.
• Detailed patient feedback is essential for refining telehealth services to meet patient expectations.