This tool allows to measure the technical conditions in hospitals for the potential application of telemedicine services.
In collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Health Organization, a tool for assessing the maturity level of health institutions to implement telemedicine services was published.
This tool was designed to support hospitals and clinics, in determining their maturity level to offer quality telemedicine services. In addition, it seeks not only to assess whether a distinction is fit to support such services, but to identify gaps that require greater technical support. Therefore, the "Request technical support" option was included in the maturity level classification system to promote collaboration with specialized partners.
The references of the maturity level, for the measurement of hospitals, were classified from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest):
- 1 = No initiative is in place.
- 2 = Some steps have been taken, but the institution is still far from being able to implement services.
- 3 = Good progress, and some telemedicine services could begin to be implemented.
- 4 = Everything is ready for telemedicine services to operate at full capacity.
This assessment tool is applicable to medical centers that already have telemedicine programs in use. A self-assessment is important to recognize failures and successes and thus measure the importance of the system within the institution.
The tool has a total of 99 questions categorized in the following topics:
- Organizational readiness: Foundational basis to identify issues to be resolved before moving forward with telemedicine services
- Processes: Set of operations and functions that must be taken into consideration. Processes: Set of operations and functions that must be taken into consideration.
- Digital environment: Necessary technological infrastructure, including hardware and software.
- Human resources: Institutional capacity in the areas of health services and of IT and communications.
- Regulatory issues: Rules and procedures that must be considered when providing telemedicine services.
- Expertise: Additional know-how that could benefit the effective implementation of telemedicine services
Once the instrument is implemented, the results should be discussed between interdisciplinary teams of specialists. PAHO then suggests that the results be validated by health service experts experienced in telemedicine.
To consult the full document, please visit the following link:
https://www.paho.org/ish/images/toolkit/COVID-19-Telemedicine_RATool-es.pdf?ua=1
