Telehomecare Challenge Collaboration Among Healthcare Professionals

The aim of this study was to identify the organizational problems that emerge when telehomecare technology for heart patients is implemented across healthcare sectors. The overall methodology of the study is the case study. A triangulation of data collection techniques was used in order to provide multiple sources of evidence for identifying the problems. During the design and implementation phases of a telehomecare system, several problems emerged: hospital nurses feared losing control over their job content, district nurses were confronted with more clinical tasks, there were competing visions about patient treatment and care between healthcare professionals, new patterns for collaboration across sectors emerged, and the lack of payment structure for home hospitalisation of patients created no incentives for telehomecare. These issues should be taken into account when implementing wireless telehomecare technology. If attention is not paid to these challenges telehomecare will remain marginalized and not be able to be implemented effectively.