Telemedicine Makes the Patient Stay in Hospital at Home

Pressure Injury, Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal Cord Injury, Pressure Injury, Health Related Quality of Life, Telemedicine, Service Innovation, Rehabilitation, Interdisciplinary collaboration, User-participation, Activity and participation, Health economics

The goal of the project is to study whether multidisciplinary follow- up performed via telemedicine to the patient in his or her own home, will improve the healthcare services offered to a particular group of patients. The hypotheses are that this could increase the treatment options, increase knowledge translation, give significant socioeconomic benefits, and allow greater accessibility to specialized healthcare services, as well as increase the involvement of patients and those working in primary healthcare.

The goals of rehabilitation are to improve functional level, decrease secondary morbidity and enhance health-related quality of life. The costs associated with pressure injury are considerable. In addition to direct treatment- related costs, pressure injury also impact the hospital performance metrics. On top of the financial implications, pressure injury have a significant impact on patient morbidity and -mortality, as well as on health related quality of life. The researchers believe there is a large potential for improvement in treatment of pressure injuries. An multidisciplinary approach, including home-based rehabilitation programs, might help prevent pressure injuries and their complications, and thus reduce associated costs. The investigators conducted a pilot in 2012, in which patients with spinal cord injury and pressure injury were monitored through multidisciplinary outpatient home care, using telemedicine. The project was beneficial for the consumers/ patients, especially in terms of consumer- participation and -contribution, improved quality of life, and a better cooperation between primary and specialized healthcare services. Retrospective economic analysis indicated that telemedicine provides great savings for public healthcare services, and that using telemedicine with other patient groups with similar problems, could be beneficial. A positive outcome of the current study can be made available to most people with pressure injury. Knowledge about pressure injury will contribute in both planning and establishment of good treatment lines for the patients, as well as contribute to environmental savings, and more proper use of the health resources. This may reduce the consumption of hospital services, because a larger proportion of services are provided by the municipality. An important scientific significance of this research will thus be to improve, simplify and streamline health care and health- related services.

Norway