TeleHospice: A Community-Engaged Model for Utilizing Mobile Tablets to Enhance Rural Hospice Care:

Background:In rural communities, providing hospice care can be a challenge. Hospice personnel sometimes travel great distances to reach patients, resulting in difficulty maintaining access, quality, cost-effectiveness, and safety. In 1998, the University of Kansas Medical Center piloted the country’s first TeleHospice (TH) service. At that time, challenges with broad adoption due to cost and attitudes regarding technology were noted. A second TH project was launched in early 2017 using newer technology; this article updates that ongoing implementation.Methods:The Organizational Change Managerwas followed for the guided selection of the hospice partner. The University of Kansas Medical Center partnered with Hospice Services, Inc. (HSI), a leader in rural hospice care, providing services to 16 Kansas counties. Along with mobile tablets, a secure cloud-based videoconferencingsolution was chosen for ease of use.Results:From August 2017 through January 2018, 218 TH videoconferencingencounters including 917 ...