Abstract

Purpose: A review of the literature was conducted in order to identify, appraise, and report on the use of telehospice in patient care. Questions addressed in the review were, what is the current state of telehospice practice, who is using telehospice technology, and how is it being utilized in patient care?

Methodology: Inclusion criteria for the review were articles concerning hospice care providers, patients and family caregivers involved with telehospice. Telehospice interventions for patient care were included in the review. Editorial reviews and commentaries concerning telehospice were excluded for review. Search strings were designed to identify telehospice use and applications. A total of 78 searches were run in 12 databases using search strings with MeSH typology. Data limiters for the searches were peer reviewed articles in English with the range from 1988 to 2013. The grey literature was searched using an ancestry approach.

Results: Using a PRISMA technique, the literature searches yielded 229 articles from the databases and the ancestry search of the literature. There were 125 articles excluded for reasons such as articles were duplicates, policy analysis, commentaries or not relating to telehospice technology and patient care. There were 104 full text articles concerning telehospice that were assessed for review eligibility with 80 of these articles excluded. There were a total of 25 articles included in the review. The 25 articles were published in 18 different journals indicating little possibility of journal bias. The review reflects telehospice use in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Implications for Practice: It is clear that the practice of telehospice has relevance for patient care at the end of life. Telehospice has the potential to decrease patient and caregiver isolation during the dying process. Telehospice has the potential for hospice agencies to decrease costs and travel time and allow staff to monitor patients in a timely fashion. Telehospice technologies are significant tools for the delivery of future hospice care. The next evolution for telehospice care may be translational research such as developing an iPad application incorporating patient self-reporting using a standardized end of life assessment and conducting a pilot study. Interdisciplinary research and practice, makes it feasible to develop hardware and software technology that can be incorporated into end of life patient care with measurable patient benefits.

Author Details

Paul Umberger, FNP-C, paul.umberger@nau.edu

Sigma Membership

Unknown

Lead Author Affiliation

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Systematic Review

Research Approach

Other

Keywords:

Telehospice, Telemedicine, Hospice, End of Life, Systematic Review

Advisor

Dunn, Dorothy

Second Advisor

Allchin, Lynn

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Northern Arizona University

Degree Year

2014

Rights Holder

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All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Faculty Approved: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

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