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Årgang og sidetall:
2011;30(5):1-16
English summary – Patient skills in the Virtual Hospital
Study objectives:
The purpose of this paper is to initially describe the methodology and organization behind the Virtual Hospital, a home-based telemedicine treatment (HBTT) system allowing patients with acute exacerbation to be treated at home instead of a conventional hospital admission. Furthermore, this paper will investigate patient skills based on a 7-item combined training program and checklist (CTPC), developed to detect patients who are unable to handle the telemedicine equipment needed to receive adequate and safe HBTT. Our hypothesis was that our CTPC could ensure adequate level of patient skills to provide safe and effective HBTT. Design: Based on the outcome of the first 10 patients who underwent the training program and was treated at home using telemedicine technology, issues of both physical and cognitive abilities will be discussed in order to characterize patient skills needed for a successful outcome of the home-based telemedicine treatment (HBTT). Measurements and results: Of the 10 patients we included, two did not succeed in the HBTT. We could not identify skills related causes in any of the cases. A selected summary of a patient satisfaction questionnaire showed high content with the HBTT experience. Conclusion: Our study design was not sufficient to show a specific effect of the CTPC alone. However, our current findings do suggest that the combination of the initial screening process, training of the patient with a CTPC, and the telemedicine intervention is sufficient to provide a safe and effective HBTT. Further investigation is needed to conclude on this matter.
