Online Program

331425
Assessment of patient satisfaction of telehealth based services to underserved communities in rural Texas


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 12:50 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

Usman Ghumman, M.D., M.B.B.S., School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX
Whitney Garney, M.P.H., Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX
Carly McCord, Ph.D., Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX
Alejandra Sequeira, M.Ed., Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, Bryan, TX
Jeremy Saenz, M.Ed., Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX
Jessica Chang, M.Ed., Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, Bryan, TX
Timothy Elliott, Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Texas A&M University, Bryan, TX
Introduction

In the US, 20% of the population lives in rural areas, and Texas has some of the largest rural counties. Throughout the country the provision of health care is disproportionately distributed to urban areas with more health care facilities. Due to these disparities in health care, thousands of people in rural Texas communities are not receiving the mental health services they require. The Brazos Valley, Texas has five counties that are designated as Mental Health Provider Shortage Areas. With televideo conferencing counseling (telehealth) showing promising results in the mental health field, patient response and satisfaction of telehealth based services provided by the Telehealth Counselling Clinic (TCC) was investigated.

Method

Participants from five counties within the Brazos Valley participated in telehealth counseling. 278 individuals from the population received counselling via a HIPPA compliant T1 line and high definition television. A subsample was given a satisfaction survey at intake and termination.

Results

70% of the participants strongly agreed and 25% somewhat agreed that the care they received was as good as if they met the counselor in person, while 5% were not sure. 100% of participants agreed they would use TCC services again.

Discussion

Although telehealth in health care face numerous challenges such as lack of in-person rapport building,the Telehealth counseling clinic has been successful with positive results and high patient satisfaction rates in mental health services rendered to people of low socio-economic status in the rural parts of Texas.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Assess satisfaction of telehealth based services Evaluate efficacy of telehealth counseling

Keyword(s): Telehealth, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was the team leader on the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.