A JOINT US-UK STUDY OF HOME TELENURSING

Nursing notes for patients nursed at home in the USA and the UK were r eviewed using an abstraction instrument developed and tested in the US . More than 1700 episodes of patient care at home were reviewed: 906 i n the US and 839 in the UK. Preliminary data suggest that in the US ap proximately 45% of home nursing visits could be done via telemedicine, while the figure is lower in the UK, less than 15%. Pilot trials of a n analogue video-telephone in Kansas City and Belfast suggest that eve n relatively low-quality compressed video may be useful for home nursi ng. Clearly, there are differences between the two countries which mer it further study, but there is evidence to suggest that telemedicine m ay have a role in the delivery of home health care.