Telemedicine and Home Care: Share Your Thoughts

In the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients and clinicians are shying away from non-essential procedures, and shifting to telemedicine or even home healthcare when possible.

We want to know your thoughts on telemedicine and home healthcare — has your institution implemented either of the practices? Are they a convenient and beneficial way of providing care, or can they cause increased risks and complications? Take our survey, and let us know. Your answers could be answered in an upcoming article on Oncology Nursing News.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently published guidelines, that state that cancer care providers should switch to telemedicine when possible. However, when it comes to actually administering care in patients’ homes, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) published an official statement against home infusion of chemotherapy.

Many providers are forced to determine if the benefit of treatment is worth the potential health risks of bringing a patient — who may already be immunocompromised – into the clinic for treatment. While telemedicine and home health may be able to mitigate patient exposure, they still result in drawbacks such as not being able to give treatment over the phone or video calling, or not administering it in a sterile environment at a patient’s home.

Healthcare providers are now navigating uncharted territory, and there may be no clear-cut answer of what is best. That’s why we want to hear from you.