Evaluation of the Impacts of a Provider-Focused Telehomecare Intervention: A Pre-Post Study

This study presents a pre-post evaluation study of the individual and organizational effects resulting from a provider-focused telehomecare intervention. The project consists of the implementation of a software application aimed at optimizing the organization of clinical activities delivered at patients´ homes. Data collection was performed over three periods (one pre- and two post-implementation periods). Nurses were satisfied with the quality of the information stored in the system. The software permitted the allocation of one additional hour to direct patient care, as opposed to one hour less for documentation and paperwork. Eight months after the implementation of the telehomecare application, the number of treated patients increased by 6% (p=.04), the average number of home visits by nurses increased by 0.7 visits per day (p=.02), and the time allocated for direct patient care increased by 14% (p=.003).