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Virtual Geriatric Care: User Perception of Telegeriatrics in Nursing Homes of Singapore

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Book cover Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2015)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 578))

Abstract

Older persons have unique health needs and treatment preferences that require geriatric care for comprehensive evaluation and management. Telegeriatrics was implemented in December 2010 by an acute hospital in Singapore with the aim to provide timely specialist input to nursing home residents. This preliminary study explores the perspectives of users from the NHs and the acute hospital on two aspects of Telegeriatrics – the telemedicine consultation and the nurse training programme. Seven focus group discussions and three semi-structured moderate interviews were conducted with a total of 25 participants. To identify important themes and new themes that emerged during the coding process, thematic content analysis was applied. The most commonly cited benefits were increased access to specialist care, reduced need for hospitalizations, improved quality of care, and enhanced nursing skills and knowledge. However, common perceived barriers were the lack of personal touch, technical issues, and medico-legal issues. This mode of delivering specialist care was generally acceptable to the users. To the users, Telegeriatrics showed feasibility in providing consultation, delivering education, and enhancing nursing competence.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants of this study for their time and insights.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GeriCare@North, AHS Programme Office, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    H. J. Toh, J. Chia, K. Lam, G. C. Magpantay & C. M. De Leon

  2. Ageing-In-Place, AHS Programme Office, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    E. Koh

  3. Department of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    J. A. Low

Authors
  1. H. J. Toh
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  2. J. Chia
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  3. E. Koh
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  4. K. Lam
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  5. G. C. Magpantay
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  6. C. M. De Leon
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  7. J. A. Low
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. A. Low .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Markus Helfert

  2. Human-Computer Interaction, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger

  3. RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Martina Ziefle

  4. Inst Sup Téc, Inst de Telecom, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Fred

  5. Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    John O'Donoghue

  6. Sys Tech & Image Exploitation, Fraunhofer Institute of Optonics, Lemgo, Germany

    Carsten Röcker

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Toh, H.J. et al. (2015). Virtual Geriatric Care: User Perception of Telegeriatrics in Nursing Homes of Singapore. In: Helfert, M., Holzinger, A., Ziefle, M., Fred, A., O'Donoghue, J., Röcker, C. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. ICT4AWE 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 578. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27695-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27695-3_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27694-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27695-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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