Acceptance of Telemedical Consultations in Nursing Homes: First Insights & Outlook

Rising numbers of older people and people in need of care pose tremendous challenges for care institutions. Due to a lack of medical personnel, residents of nursing homes (geriatric patients) are frequently hospitalized although it is not medically necessary and causes a deterioration of health in many cases. Telemedical consultations in nursing homes represent one approach to relief and support care personnel in emergency and medically uncertain situations aiming at a reduction of unnecessary hospitalizations of geriatric patients. For a successful implementation of these consultations and related innovative processes, the patients' and as well as other stakeholders' (caregivers, doctors, relatives) perspectives and acceptance are important. Thus, a systematic investigation and adjustment of the requirements is of immense importance. This paper introduces the Optimal@NRW approach for a cross-sectoral care structure that aims at an avoidance of unnecessary hospital admissions by implementing telemedical infrastructure in nursing homes. A first scenario-based acceptance evaluation of telemedical consultations provides insights into the people's attitudes and allows to outline an acceptance research agenda as well as next steps within the project.